Five Things the Census Revealed About America in 2011

 

From the Brookings report, Five Things the Census Revealed About America in 2011

 

Nearly all these 5 (of many) findings from the Brookings  State of Metropolitan America analyses over the past year have major public health implications, especially

• Americans are increasingly stuck at home
  “Americans move around more than their counterparts in other developed countries, but a lot less than they used to. Some fear that in the short run, homeowners are stuck in places with too few jobs, and not able or willing to move to places with healthier labor markets. Longer run, and perhaps more importantly, states and metro areas that relied too heavily on in-migration for growth must re-calibrate their economies to create better, more diverse job opportunities for current and future residents.”
• Minorities are driving growth, replenishing America’s youth
  “Large metro areas, and increasingly their suburbs, stand at the forefront of America’s transformation into a multiethnic society. How they respond to and manage that shift, especially the social and economic opportunities they provide to a highly diverse population of families with children, will establish the course for our nation’s well-being over the coming decades. Rapid growth in the immigrant population in some parts of the country produced late-decade policy backlashes that could threaten these places’ longer-run economic well-being.”
• Boomers continue to age, transforming America’s households
  “The older population is growing everywhere, and a host of public and private services will be adapted to an aging population in the decades to come. Areas that are also gaining younger populations may have a resource advantage in responding to those changes, compared to rapidly aging northern states and metro areas. Yet because the former areas have more racially and ethnically diverse young people, they too may face challenges in managing competition for scarce public resources between predominantly white seniors and minority families with children.”
• America lost ground in income and poverty in the 2000′s
  “Census 2000 captured American households at a high-water mark economically, a far different situation than they faced in 2010. Economic growth strategies for the coming decade must place greater emphasis on achieving shared prosperity that lifts incomes for a broad segment of households. With unemployment projected to remain high for some time, many parts of the country will confront higher fiscal and social burdens associated with poverty, including concentrated poverty, for the foreseeable future. All metro areas, meanwhile, must continue to adapt a traditionally city-focused social services infrastructure for helping the poor to the reality of region-wide needs.”

 

Related Resources

• US Census Bureau - source of data about the nation’s people and economy, including
• Population & Housing Census - every 10 years
• Economic Census - every 5 years
• Census of Governments - every 5 years
• American Community Survey - annually
• Our many surveys – both Demographic & Economic
• Economic Indicators - each indicator is released on a specific schedule, see the Economic Indicator Calendar

                    Great places to start searching for statistics about

• People and Households (age, children, community, health insurance, housing, income, school enrollement, and much more)
• Data Access Tools -  links to interactive internet tools (as online mapping tools) and free downloadable software

Related articles

• Census Bureau to Release 2010 Census Statistics on Nation’s 65 and Older Population (prnewswire.com)
• New Census Figures Show Increase in Poor to 16 Percent of Total Population (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
• Census Records Not Enough When Researching Race (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
• U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for December 9 (prnewswire.com)
• Census 2010 Data on Census 2000 Maps – How We Do It (policymap.com)
• How the U.S. Census Can Help Your Business (smallbizdaily.com)
• War On Information: Budget Cuts Eliminate Data On Job Creators (huffingtonpost.com)
• On the Census’ Mobility Report (rortybomb.wordpress.com)
• New census numbers show meager growth for Ohio (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Mapping the 2010 U.S. Census – NYTimes.com (mvzgis.wordpress.com)
• Recession Drives Up Concentrated Poverty in America’s Suburbs (zerohedge.com)
• New census method puts US poor at 49.1 million (alternet.org)
• The New Metro Minority Map: Regional Shifts in Hispanics, Asians, and Blacks from Census 2010 (bespacific.com)
• Census: Hispanics Fuel US White Population Growth (abcnews.go.com)
• Ending the U.K. Census: Move Could Impact Policy, Budget (time.com)
• Whites become minority in America (rt.com)
• Poverty threshold rises, but more people are poor, in new Census measure (dailykos.com)
• Census Bureau Admits Homosexuals Less Than 1% of U.S. Households (fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com)