Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The Census Bureau has released new U.S. population projections that assume a markedly lower level of growth than the agency predicted in the previous projections in 2008. Most of the reduced growth is due to lower projected immigration, but the bureau also forecast lower birth rates than it previously assumed.
Every decade, new information from the decennial census is used to update a wide range of government demographic estimates and survey benchmarks. In some cases, that results in revisions to previously published data, which researchers need to note.
The Census Bureau released 2011 American Community Survey data today, and this posting looks at news coverage about the newly released estimates. Most coverage focused on economic indicators, with some stories saying the economy was still declining but others concluding the decline may have bottomed out.
This posting includes links to newly released Census Bureau research on how Americans should be asked about their race and ethnicity. It links to a previous posting that explains the background behind this ground-breaking research.
The race and Hispanic origin categories on the 2010 Census form (and many other government forms) do not always match people’s self-identification, and this is especially true for Hispanics. The Census Bureau will present results of research on alternative questionnaire designs and wording that attempts to address the issue.
Starting in 2013, the Census Bureau would like all of the more than 3 million households that receive its American Community Survey to be pushed to respond online, instead of mailing back the traditional paper questionnaire. The bureau recently released results of a test of online response that had some encouraging results.
The release of records from the 1940 Census will help people research their family history, although at first the records can only be searched by address, not name. This posting details some of the findings and methods of the 1940 Census.
The 1940 Census was notable in the history of census-taking because it was the first in which some questions were asked of sample of Americans. This change enabled the Census Bureau to add questions to the form that were relevant to the Great Depression, and opened the door to the widened use of sample surveys in later censuses.
The Census Bureau has just published the results from its new alternative measure of poverty, called the Supplemental Poverty Measure, and they differ notably from the poverty rates shown by the official measure that’s been used since the 1960s. A new report by the Pew Hispanic Center compares results under both measures for key demographic groups.
The Census Bureau today released its first estimates of the number of same-sex married couples in the U.S., as well as alternatives counts to the published data for same-sex unmarried couples that try to account for data-processing issues.
The Census Bureau today released data from the 2010 American Community Survey that expands on the basic demographics in the 2010 Census. Links to the data and special reports are included in this posting.
Census Bureau data can be a useful tool to track trends in population size and characteristics since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The counts and characteristics of same-sex couples are among the most written-about data from the 2010 Census and American Community Survey. Yet, two decades after the Census Bureau began offering people the option to describe themselves as a same-sex “unmarried partner,” producing accurate numbers remains a challenge.
A workshop that brought together Census Bureau staff and expert users to discuss the bureau’s American Community Survey produced the finding that the survey’s greatest asset is its local-level data, but that users are concerned about the large margins of error associated with those small-area estimates. Users and Census Bureau staff also discussed possible changes to the survey and bureau outreach to users.
Some users of Census data may be surprised to learn what the 2010 Census did not ask, because many detailed items about demographics, economics and housing now are included in the American Community Survey. This posting includes a link to an article by sociologist Andrew Beveridge about the differences between Census 2010 and the ACS, as well as links to questionnaire forms.
New York City filed its official challenge to 2010 Census results today, stating that the count missed at least 50,000 people, in large part because occupied units were erroneously termed vacant.
The proportion of children in the nation’s population is at an all-time low, according to a new analysis of important findings and trends from the first wave of 2010 Census data that has just been published by the Population Reference Bureau.
A growing number of organizations (including the Census Bureau) are producing census-based interactive maps that allow users to choose the level of geography, topic or time period they want to display. This All Things Census posting includes links to maps using data from the 2010 Census, as well as earlier census data.
This All Things Census posting announces a new Pew Research Center report using census data to explore the economics of cohabitation, which uses census data to compare the financial well-being of adults who are married, living with an unmarried opposite-sex partner, or not living with such a partner or spouse. The Census Bureau is releasing detailed local-level counts of unmarried couples over the summer.
The ongoing release of so-called SF1 data from the 2010 Census–detailed local-level tabulations about age, families, housing and other topics–has produced a wave of news stories about the changing family. Stories from newspapers in California and Pennsylvania focus especially on same-sex couples.
There are now more Hispanics of Puerto Rican origin living in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia (4.6 million in 2010) than there are living in Puerto Rico (3.7 million), and Census Bureau data show there are notable differences between the two groups, according to a report from the Pew Hispanic Center.
New data from the 2010 Census was released today by the Census Bureau, filling in details about age, household type, homeownership and more.
As numbers continue to pour out of the 2010 Census, the National Research Council recently made a number of recommendations about how to improve the next national count, in 2020.
The Census Bureau is releasing demographic profiles from the 2010 Census this month, and here is a look at the first round of news stories from the data, which focused on young people, older Americans, the national origin of Hispanics and changes in household size.
When census-takers can’t reach anyone at a particular address or obtain information about occupants in other ways, they sometimes use a last-resort statistical technique called “imputation” to fill in missing data.
Latinos represent 16.3% of the U.S. population, but were only 7% of the voters in last November’s elections, according to a report based on census data that was released today by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Census 2010 datasets are finding a second home on the websites of think tanks, state data centers and advocacy groups that have repackaged the numbers in easy-to-use look-up formats.
The average size of U.S. households has been declining for decades, but may have grown in recent years, at least in part because of an increase in multi-generational households.
In addition to publishing detailed numbers from the 2010 Census, the Census Bureau has been releasing performance indicators from the count.
Now that the 2010 Census numbers have been released for every place in the United States, a number of local officials—including the mayors of New York and Detroit—have announced plans to file administrative challenges to counts that they contend are too low.
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About Pew Research Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts.
