Keep up with our latest demographic insights
In 1978, Congress established the first week of May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week to coincide with two important historical milestones: the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to the United States on May 7, 1843, and the contributions of Chinese workers to the building of the transcontinental railroad, completed on May 10, 1869. In 1992, Congress expanded this week observance into a month-long celebration. 252,000 The number of Asian residents in North Carolina on…
Although marriage patterns in the United States have changed considerably over the past half-century, when placed within a larger global context there is still evidence that Americans value marriage. Compared with other industrialized countries, Americans have higher marriage rates and marry somewhat earlier. Marital disruption is higher in the United States compared with European nations. We see a pattern of marriage, divorce, and remarriage, or “marriage-go-round.” This pattern in the United States, along with various…
The Bureau of Labor Statistics regularly publishes national unemployment rates by educational attainment for the highest degree attained for workers 25 and older. This analysis typically uses the Current Population Survey (CPS) data. Unfortunately, the CPS data are too small to provide high quality estimates for unemployment rates by educational attainment for individual states. Thankfully, there are multiple federal sources of statistical information available. The large sample size of the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American…
Nearly 4.5 million North Carolinians age 16 and older reported working in the 2013 American Community Survey. Of these, nearly three quarters, or 3.3 million, were of prime working age (25-64) and working full-time (defined here as 30 hours of work per week or more). Women made up 46% of North Carolina’s full-time employed population of prime working age. Although many occupations are increasingly integrated with respect to sex composition, a large number of occupations…
Colleges and universities can exert significant impacts on the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of community populations. This is often self-evident in “college towns” such as Chapel Hill, where college students make up a large portion of the population. But, as Alemayehu Bishaw notes in a recent report for the U.S. Census Bureau, “even in large cities, a big student population living off-campus can impact [economic] indicators” such as the poverty rate. College students typically live in…
“Some places attract young singles, whereas others attract married couples and families,” writes Nathan Yau on his data visualization blog, Flowing Data. This is something that I often discuss when I present to audiences around the state: places have age-specific migration profiles that reflect both the reasons why people are moving to a place, and the potential demands that they will have when they get there. Some places, like Mecklenburg County, have net migration profiles…
Nationally, 2 in 3 individuals 15 and older have ever been married according to the 2013 American Community Survey. In North Carolina, this proportion is slightly higher: 68.2%. The vast majority (71%) of ever married North Carolinians are still married. Another sixteen percent are divorced, four percent are currently separated, and nine percent are widowed. Examining trends by age shows similar trends in North Carolina and the nation. The share of individuals ever married stays…
The Census Bureau released the 2011-2013 American Community Survey (ACS) estimates today. These estimates cover detailed socioeconomic characteristics of the population and are available for all counties with populations of 20,000. This release provides data on 84 counties in North Carolina. The final 2013 ACS release—the 2009-2013 data—covering all areas, including the census tract and block group levels, is scheduled for December 4. With the release of this data set, users can compare the time…
“Today’s kindergartners offer a glimpse of tomorrow’s demographics.” – Jens Manuel Krogstad, “A view of the future through kindergarten demographics” from Pew Research Center A recent data analysis from Pew Research Center identified 17 states where 20% or more of public kindergartners were Hispanic in 2012. North Carolina just missed Pew’s cut-off; in 2012, 19.4% of kindergartners attending public school were Hispanic or Latino according to the American Community Survey. North Carolina’s share of Hispanic…
In a previous post, I looked at changes in the number and type of non-English languages spoken at home in North Carolina over time. Today, I’m looking at variation in languages spoken across space; that is, how do languages spoken vary across North Carolina counties? At an initial glance, there is little county-to-county variation. The majority of individuals age 5 and over in each county speak only English at home. Of those that speak another…
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