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My friend and colleague Christopher Marcum is expecting his first child (congratulations, Chris!) and “wanted to know what the timing of births looked like throughout the day.” So, he pulled 2012 births data from the Centers for Disease Control and produced an eye-catching series of plots. Each dot represents the total number of births that occurred in 2012 at each minute between 12:00 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. (1,440 total minutes represented). The colors represent different…
In 1880, 14% of U.S. workers were employed in manufacturing; in North Carolina, 4% were (most were working on farms). Employment in manufacturing grew steadily in both the nation and the state through mid-twentieth century. By 1930, 22% of North Carolina workers were employed in manufacturing, matching the national rate. National employment in manufacturing peaked in 1960 (27%) and subsequently declined. Since 1940, North Carolina’s share of employees in the manufacturing industry has been higher…
Writing at The Upshot, a policy and politics focused website from the New York Times, Gregor Aisch, Robert Gebeloff, and Kevin Quealy, recently released a series of interactive graphics on where residents of each state were born, documenting trends from 1900 to 2012. Not only did they use my favorite data source—the Integrated Public Use Microdata or IPUMS data from the Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota, they covered one of my favorite…
“The U.S. workforce has never been older. The share of workers ages 55 and over hit 22.2 percent in July, according to data released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s the highest since record-keeping began in 1948.” – Peter Coy, “American Workers Are Older Than Ever” at Bloomberg Businessweek Although I don’t have data for North Carolina going back to 1948, the Current Population Survey shows similar trends are occurring in North…
As I’ve discussed before, North Carolina is an attractive state to both individuals born here and those born elsewhere. The state’s attractiveness stems from a wide range of educational and employment opportunities, coupled with good quality of life and relatively affordable cost-of-living. North Carolina’s high population growth has been fueled by net migration. Net migration statistics are calculated by subtracting the number of individuals moving away from North Carolina (out-migration) from the number of individuals…
To follow up on Monday's post, here's a look at the size of the population born outside of North Carolina by county. In general, these follow total population patterns: Mecklenburg is the most populous county in the state, followed closely by Wake. Similarly, Mecklenburg has the largest population of individuals born outside of North Carolina; Wake has the second largest population of non-native NC residents. In both counties, more than half a million residents were born outside…
One hundred years ago, when North Carolina had a population of about 2.5 million people, more than nine out of 10 residents were native Tar Heels. Today's North Carolina, in contrast, approaches a population of 10 million, with more than 4 million residents born in another state or country. - Ferrel Guillory and Jessica Kennedy, "Voters born elsewhere make up nearly half of N.C. electorate," NC DataNet While 42% of North Carolina residents were born…
In 1870, just over half of the nation’s laborers were working on farms; in North Carolina, four of every five workers were employed in agriculture. While the share of workers employed in agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries steadily declined, North Carolina had a higher share of workers employed in agriculture than the nation until 1990. Today, the agricultural, forestry, and fishing industries employ fewer than 3% of all workers.
In 1910, North Carolina had a population of 2.2 million. Only two cities, Charlotte (34,014) and Wilmington (25,748), had populations surpassing 25,000 persons. Winston-Salem (22,700) was the third largest city in the state followed by Raleigh (19,218), Asheville (18,762), Durham (18,241), and Greensboro (15,895). None of North Carolina’s cities numbered among the 100 largest cities in the United States. Reflecting this highly rural, low density population, less than 3% of the state’s population lived in…
With respect to average hours worked, North Carolina is...pretty average, at least compared to the United States. In 2013, North Carolina employees worked an average of 34.5 hours per week or 1,794 hours per year. The U.S. average was 34.4 hours per week or 1,788 hours per year. Among the states, North Carolina was 24th for average weekly hours worked. Texas had the highest hours worked (36.3) and Delaware the lowest (32.6). Average hours worked per week…
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