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Non-Response Follow-Up (NRFU) for the 2020 Census began nationwide on Tuesday, August 11th. Last week, the Census Bureau began releasing daily reports on total enumeration—the percent of housing units that have self-responded plus the percent that have been captured in NRFU —for the nation and all 50 states, DC., and Puerto Rico. This proportion ranges from 1.7% in Idaho to 29.1% in West Virginia. Based on these reports, North Carolina, and the southeast more broadly,…
As of August 18, 2020, nearly three in five North Carolina households had responded to the census online, by mail, or by phone (59.8%). This is below the national average of 63.9%. It is also below North Carolina’s self-response rate in 2010 (64.8%) by five percentage points, despite the two-and-a-half additional months of self-response compared to the last census due to coronavirus-related extensions. Every household that does not self-respond to the Census must be counted…
This is part of our series looking at NC's registered voters. Other stories include an overview of NC's voters and an in-depth look at NC's Democratic voters. As of July 25th, 2020, North Carolina had 7 million registered voters. Of these, 2.1 million or 30% were registered as a Republican. Age Younger voters are the least likely to register as Republican, reflecting their higher affinity for registering unaffiliated. Just 23% of voters ages 18-34 are…
This is part of our series looking at NC's registered voters. Other stories include an overview of NC's voters and an in-depth look at NC's Republican voters. As of July 25th, 2020, North Carolina had 7 million registered voters. Of these, 2.5 million or 36% were registered as a Democrat. Age Older voters are the most likely to register as a Democrat, partly reflecting the legacy of the “Solid South.” Just over 43% of voters…
This is the first in a three-part series on North Carolina's voters. Today, we take a look at North Carolina's 7 million registered voters. In the coming days, we will take a look at North Carolina's registered Republicans and Democrats, respectively. As of July 25th, 2020, North Carolina had about 7.8 million voting-eligible adults and 7 million registered voters. Their partisan affiliation was roughly split between three groups: Democrat, unaffiliated, and Republican, with a slight…
A few months ago, Carolina Demography's director, Rebecca Tippett, asked me to develop 100 detailed one-pager reports with over 120 data fields – one for each county in North Carolina. As a graphic designer, coding in a brand-new language seemed overwhelming, but the idea of entering 120 data fields on each page would have been time-consuming, opened up the possibility of transcription errors, and required hours of copyediting. So I spent the next few weeks…
More than four in every ten North Carolina households have not yet filled out the 2020 Census, representing more than 4 million North Carolinians not currently captured in the Census. Our current response rate is below the national rate and below where our state was in 2010. North Carolina communities that have not responded at high rates are predominantly rural, Black, and Brown, with low internet access. It is vital to our state that all…
This blog is the second in a series exploring myFutureNC’s statewide dashboard indicators, which span the educational continuum. Read the complete series. This week, we’ll be going in depth on two similar indicators - College-and-Career-Ready in reading and math. Although we provide detailed information on NC, national data on the percent of 3-8 grade students who earned college-and-career-ready scores on End-of-Grade (EOG) reading and math exams are not available, and therefore we cannot compare North Carolina to other states. What…
This blog post is the first in a series exploring myFuture NC’s statewide dashboard indicators, which span the educational continuum. For week 1, we’ll be going in depth on NC Prekindergarten (NC Pre-K) enrollment. Although we provide detailed information on NC, data on enrollment in Pre-K is not available nationally, and therefore we cannot compare NC’s enrollment rates to other states. What is NC Pre-K? Research has established that the first several years of a…
A complete and accurate census count is incredibly important. The census shapes how billions of dollars in federal funding are distributed (including $43.8 billion to North Carolina), how political seats are apportioned, and how communities plan for their future residents. Historically, certain populations have been undercounted in the census, due to a variety of factors. In 2010, the Census Bureau estimated the census missed about 2.1% of the Black population nationwide. For young children, the…
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