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Census results
Appetite for big houses grows though family size shrinks
(05/23/07)WASHINGTON -- McMansions are sprouting in the suburbs of Washington and Atlanta, in southern Connecticut and out West in Utah as an appetite for bigger homes just keeps on growing. One in five American houses had at least four bedrooms in 2005. That's up from one in six in 1990, despite shrinking families and increasing costs for construction and energy...
U.S. divorce rate drops to lowest since 1970
(05/11/07) NEW YORK -- By the numbers, divorce just isn't what it used to be. Despite the common notion that America remains plagued by a divorce epidemic, the national per capita divorce rate has declined steadily since its peak in 1981 and is now at its lowest level since 1970... 
St. Louis population shows increase for 4th straight year
(04/20/07)ST. LOUIS -- After a half-century of declining population, St. Louis gained residents for the fourth straight year in 2006, city officials said Thursday. The U.S. Census Bureau's original 2006 estimate for the city showed a slight decline in population -- to 347,181 from 352,572 in 2005. But for the sixth straight year, Mayor Francis Slay's office challenged the estimate...
Arizona takes Nevada's place as the nation's fastest-growing state
(12/22/06) WASHINGTON -- Arizona: It's not just for retired Midwesterners. Arizona is attracting people from across the United States and across the border at such a pace that it is now the fastest-growing state in the country, replacing Nevada, which had held the crown for 19 straight years. The new population figures were released today by the Census Bureau...
At next U.S. population milestone, racial categories will be more fluid
(10/22/06) Now that the nation officially numbers more than 300 million, what next? What will 400 million look like? If demographers are right, we'll hit that mark by 2043. They and other futurists envision a typical American neighborhood that year will be something like this:...
200 millionth American ready for new milestone
(10/15/06) ATLANTA -- When the 300 millionth American is born or immigrates this week, Bobby Woo will welcome a new milestone that surpasses an unofficial distinction he has held for nearly 39 years. When Woo was born in 1967, Life magazine heralded him as the 200 millionth American...
America's population to hit 300 million this fall
(06/26/06) WASHINGTON -- The U.S. population is on target to hit 300 million this fall and it's a good bet the milestone baby -- or immigrant -- will be Hispanic. No one will know for sure because the date and time will be just an estimate. But Latinos -- immigrants and those born in this country -- are driving the population growth. ...
Fastest growing counties suburban, rural or both
(03/16/06) WASHINGTON -- America's fastest growing counties are suburban, rural or a mixture of both as more people seek big yards and open spaces, even if that means a long commute. New Census Bureau estimates show the nation's population shifting south and west, to the distant suburbs of metropolitan areas stretching from Florida to Utah...
Census confirms that St. Louis is growing in population
(12/03/05) ST. LOUIS -- Peter and Jane Reinecke were empty-nesters living in a 6,500-square-foot home in Chesterfield who tired of the 25-mile drive into St. Louis for trips to ballgames, the Fox Theatre and Muny Opera. So they found a century-old house in a historic city neighborhood, fell in love with it and moved in in March...
Census Bureau: Highest wage states are in East, lowest in South
(11/30/05) WASHINGTON -- Americans have been migrating south and west for decades, but it appears they've been leaving some high-paying jobs behind. While there are many pockets of wealth in the South and West, the states with the highest wage earners line the East Coast, according to Census data released Tuesday...
Study: Divorce rate falls as cohabitation climbs
(07/19/05) MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. -- The divorce rate in the United States is falling, and a new study offers an explanation: More people are shacking up instead of getting married. In a report released today, the co-directors of the National Marriage Project, a nonpartisan institute at Rutgers University that promotes marriage, said couples who get married are more committed to each other than those who are just live together...
Census bureau reports fastest-growing cities
(06/30/05) WASHINGTON -- Consider a move to Gilbert, Ariz., if you're looking to trade in that two-bedroom home for four bedrooms and a pool in the backyard. "Everywhere we go, even back in the Midwest, you hear Gilbert all the time," says Karen Breeden, who moved to the Phoenix suburb last week from South Bend, Ind., with her husband and two children...
U.S. census- One in seven is Hispanic
(06/09/05) One of every seven people in the United States is Hispanic, a record number that probably will keep rising because of immigration and a birth rate outstripping non-Hispanic blacks and whites. The country's largest minority group accounted for one-half of the overall population growth of 2.9 million between July 2003 and July 2004, according to a Census Bureau report being released today...
Census finds college-educated white women earn just less than blacks and Asians
(03/28/05) WASHINGTON -- Black and Asian women with bachelor's degrees earn slightly more than similarly educated white women, and white men with four-year degrees make more than anyone else. A white woman with a bachelor's degree typically earned nearly $37,800 in 2003, compared with nearly $43,700 for a college-educated Asian woman and $41,100 for a college-educated black woman, according to data being released today by the Census Bureau. Hispanic women took home slightly less at $37,600 a year...
By the numbers Survey shows what Americans do, where they go
(12/09/04) WASHINGTON -- Americans are on the road more than ever. Drivers in a typical household log enough miles every year to travel between New York and Los Angeles almost eight times -- 21,200 miles. On those road trips, they might snack on cheese. Americans consume almost 31 pounds of it a year. Lots of people -- almost 29 million -- try to burn off those calories by joining health clubs...
Census figures show states went on borrowing tear in 1990s
(07/26/04) TOPEKA, Kan. -- Kansans once enjoyed the distinction of being the Americans least burdened by state borrowing, owing less than $200 in bonds per resident. Most states had at least five times as much debt per person. But starting in the 1990s, state lawmakers in both parties took advantage of low interest rates to go on a spending bender. They issued bonds to finance better highways and bridges, repairs on state university campuses and even a restoration of the state Capitol...
Census stats show loss of population in St. Louis
(06/24/04) The city of St. Louis' population decline is nothing new. But there's a distinction in the latest census estimates: America's one-time gateway of westward expansion has lost residents at a larger percentage rate than any city with more than 100,000 people...
National survey of men attempts to identify the marriage-prone
(06/24/04) NEW YORK -- While most single young men aspire to marriage, about one-fifth are deeply skeptical of the institution and their prospects of making it work, according to a new national survey which closely links men's marital outlook to their upbringing...
Census report - It pays to be a man in most jobs
(06/04/04) WASHINGTON -- If a woman wants to make more money than a man, her job options are severely limited. She could clean up hazardous waste. Or install telecommunications lines. But not much else. The Census Bureau compiled statistics on hundreds of job categories from its 2000 headcount and found just five where women typically earn at least as much as men...
Stirring up the melting pot
(03/18/04) For as long as there has been an America, whites have made up a clear majority. But that will change by 2050 when minority groups will be 49.9 percent of the population, the Census Bureau says. Asians and Hispanics will see the most dramatic increases between now and midcentury, when the U.S. population will have grown by almost 50 percent to reach 420 million, according to bureau projections being released today...
Census - Blacks settling in South at record pace
(10/31/03) WASHINGTON -- A strong economy and vastly improved race relations are luring record numbers of black Americans to the South, a region that many deserted early in the 20th century. More than 680,000 blacks 5 and older moved to the South from another region between 1995 and 2000, outnumbering the 333,000 who moved away by a better than 2-to-1 margin, according to a Census Bureau report released Thursday...
More women choose childless lifestyles
(10/25/03) WASHINGTON -- Anne Hare and her husband made a momentous decision three years ago: They would not have children. It's not that they don't like kids, she says. They simply don't want to alter the lifestyle they enjoy. "With kids, especially young kids, infants and toddlers, you really can't do the active stuff we like to do," said Hare, 43, a fitness program coordinator from Gainesville, Ga...
Fast Hispanic growth will continue at least until 2020
(10/15/03) WASHINGTON -- The population surge that has made Hispanics America's largest minority shows no sign of slowing in the next 20 years, according to a study released Tuesday by a Latino research group. The Pew Hispanic Center found that much of the growth will be from children born to parents who arrived during the immigration wave that began in the 1980s. ...
Census shows Americans on the move
(09/24/03) Genaro C. Armas The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- America really is a country on the move. In the last five years of the 20th century, close to half the population packed up and moved to different homes. Usually, the moving van didn't have to travel...
Census reveals western suburbs as fastest-growing cities
(07/10/03) WASHINGTON -- Americans on the move are seeking space and sun, turning once-sleepy suburbs in Arizona, Nevada and California into the fastest-growing cities in the country. The Phoenix suburb of Gilbert has grown by nearly 25 percent in a little over two years to lead the way, according to Census Bureau estimates being released Thursday. Communities around Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego also experienced population booms between April 2000 and July 2002...
Cape County gets new population label
(07/01/03) The federal government has designated Cape Girardeau and Jackson as part of a new Micropolitan Statistical Area, a label based on census data that some hope will funnel more federal dollars into the area. It's just a statistical tool currently, says the federal Office of Management and Budget, which developed the new designation...
Nation's birth rate falls to record low
(06/26/03) WASHINGTON -- America's birth rate fell to a record low last year as both teenagers and women in their prime childbearing years had fewer babies, the government said Wednesday. But the percentages of premature and low birth weight babies climbed, continuing the rise of recent years...
Hispanic growth expands population
(06/19/03) WASHINGTON -- Hispanics accounted for nearly half the growth in the U.S population the past two years as a high birth rate and influx of immigrants helped secure Latinos' position as the largest minority group. Hispanics numbered 38.8 million as of July 2002. That was an increase of almost 10 percent, or 3.5 million, since April 2000, the Census Bureau estimated Wednesday. During the same period, the national population rose 2.5 percent, or 6.9 million people, to more than 288 million...
Roaring '90s brought boom in children with stay-at-home moms
(06/17/03) WASHINGTON -- Nearly 10.6 million children were being raised by full-time stay-at-home moms last year, up 13 percent in a little less than a decade. Experts credit the economic boom, the cultural influence of America's growing Hispanic population and the entry into parenthood of a generation of latchkey kids...
Census Bureau releases detailed undercount, overcount estimates
(04/15/03) WASHINGTON -- The Census Bureau said Monday that its 2000 count was least accurate in Indiana and Minnesota and did best in New Mexico and Colorado. A detailed report released Monday shows the census-takers didn't miss by much in any state. States in the Midwest had the highest overcounts, while Texas and California had some of the largest numbers of people missed, along with parts of the mid-Atlantic and rural West...
Census now gives estimate of overcount for 2000 effort
(03/13/03) WASHINGTON -- After crunching more numbers, the Census Bureau now says it overcounted by 1.3 million people in 2000 instead of missing more than 3 million. The findings released Wednesday show an overcount of whites, Asians, American Indians on reservations and young children, while many blacks and Hispanics were missed during the once-a-decade count...
Statistical Abstract of U.S. being released by Census Bureau
(02/11/03) WASHINGTON -- Here's the truth about cats and dogs: Canines rule in American households, though just barely. About 36 percent of homes have dogs, while 32 percent have cats. Feline fanatics can take heart with this statistic: Your pet sees the vet less often...
Court challenge to census stands
(11/23/02) WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department will not appeal a ruling ordering the Census Bureau to release figures estimating how many people were missed in the 2000 population count, a decision that could affect how billions of federal dollars are distributed...
Census finds more teens getting married
(11/09/02) WASHINGTON -- The number of married teenagers surged nearly 50 percent during the 1990s, reversing a decades-long decline. Marriage remains fairly uncommon in this age group -- only 4.5 percent of 15- to 19-year-olds were hitched in 2000 -- but researchers were nonetheless surprised by the increase reported by the Census Bureau...
Census Bureau ordered to release adjusted count
(10/10/02) PORTLAND, Ore. -- A federal appeals court ruled that the Census Bureau must release its statistically adjusted count for every state, county and neighborhood in the country -- a decision that could affect how billions in government money is distributed...
Cape's income gap
(09/29/02) There's not much money on Cape Girardeau's south side. Some of the homes are quaint and properly maintained. But others are run down, with high weeds, chipped paint and junk cars in the yards. Some neighbors there complain about loitering on the corners and suspected drug dealers...
Jackson income up 35 percent
(09/29/02) According to the U.S. Census Bureau, census tracts generally have between 1,500 and 8,000 people, with an optimum size of 4,000. So it's unusual that Jackson, a city with a population of about 12,000, is considered one big tract by the bureau. Still, the numbers show that Jackson has seen a substantial growth in per-capita income since 1990...
Many large U.S. cities tripled in area over last half-century
(09/28/02) WASHINGTON -- The average size of the nation's 100 most populated cities is about 168 square miles, more than triple the size in 1950, Census 2000 figures show. Cities in the South and West led the land grab. "Most growth in cities has not been in the building of big apartment blocks, but cities capturing a new subdivision" on their outskirts, said Robert Lang, director of the Alexandria, Va.-based Institute for Metropolitan Research of Virginia Tech. ...
Poverty figures up, income down in 2000, Census Bureau says
(09/25/02) WASHINGTON -- Income declined while poverty levels rose last year, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, a double dose of bad economic news that coincided with the first recession in a decade. After nearly a decade of decline, the U.S. poverty rate stood at 11.7 percent last year, up from 11.3 percent the previous year, which was the lowest level since 1974. More than 32.9 million people lived in poverty last year, 1.3 million more than in 2000...
Census gives economic profile of average worker
(09/22/02) Darrin Scott drives a Dodge Neon. His wife, Jana, drives a minivan. He and Jana are raising their two daughters in a three-bedroom house with a basement they remodeled themselves in a middle-income subdivision in Jackson. "We don't feel like we're rich where we can buy whatever we want," Scott said. "But we have enough to have cars and a house. We have to be smart with our money, but we have enough to live the basic lifestyle."...
Most commuters prefer going it alone, census shows
(08/21/02) FREDERICK, Md. -- Americans love to go it alone, at least when it comes to driving to work. Figures from the 2000 census show about 76 percent of workers 16 and older drive alone to their jobs, up from 64 percent two decades earlier and 73 percent in 1990, even though commutes are taking longer...
Grandparents fill day-care void for working parents
(08/01/02) WASHINGTON -- Working moms increasingly are relying on their parents to watch their young children, and more fathers are helping out with child care, too. Grandparents have become a more popular choice for the job than day-care centers, according to a Census Bureau report being released today...
More older couples together without wedding
(07/30/02) WASHINGTON -- Vic Pelton, 73 and in love, says there are no wedding bells in his future. He's content to share house keys and closet space -- but not "I do's" -- with his girlfriend of nearly two decades. Census Bureau data shows Pelton and his 64-year-old lady love, Jean Lovetang, are among a growing number of older Americans living together. There are at least 112,000 such couples, a survey found...
Carbondale council OKs proposed settlement on skewed census fig
(07/28/02) CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The city council has taken a step toward settling a dispute with nearby Murphysboro over an undercount in the 2000 census. Councilors approved a settlement Friday in which Murphysboro and the state would pitch in to pay Carbondale $420,198.74 in lost state payments based on population...
Single moms are doing better financially, but still struggling
(07/19/02) WASHINGTON -- Evelyn Dortch left her husband more than a decade ago, got a college degree and now makes enough to support her four children and stay off welfare. The 2000 census showed poverty rates declined for families led by single mothers like Dortch during the 1990s. Welfare reform, a booming economy, greater acceptance of single mothers in the workplace and crackdowns on deadbeat dads contributed to the trend, experts say...
Census - Cape region too sparse to be urban
(07/18/02) It is a mile that seems a lot longer now. That's how much the cities of Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Scott City missed qualifying as an urbanized area, a population-based designation those city leaders hoped would give them a stronger voice in local transportation decisions and planning...
Census finds more schooling means higher lifetime earnings
(07/18/02) WASHINGTON -- What is the difference between a high school diploma and a medical degree? About $3.2 million, says the Census Bureau. Someone whose education does not go beyond high school and who works full time can expect to earn about $1.2 million between ages 25 and 64 -- a typical work-life period, according to demographers...
State's poorer counties getting richer
(07/10/02) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Economic data from the 2000 Census suggest Missouri's long-standing record of below-average family incomes may be ending, with the latest statistics pointing to a growing number of counties with above-median incomes. These data, gleaned from the long Census form, show a different economic outcome that refutes the economic complaint of the 1990s that the bulk of financial gains went to those already at the top of the heap. ...
U.S. counts one in 12 children as disabled in 2000 Census
(07/06/02) One of every dozen U.S. children and teenagers 5.2 million has a physical or mental disability, according to new figures from the 2000 Census that reflect sharp growth in the nation's young handicapped population over the past decade. The disabilities captured by the census could range in severity from mild asthma to serious mental illness or retardation demanding full-time care...
Texas shantytown is poorest place in America
(06/07/02) CAMERON PARK, Texas -- In many ways, things are better than they were just a few years ago in Cameron Park, a cluster of shacks stretching for miles near the Mexican border. Gunfire no longer erupts at sunset. Families are more likely to stay put when fathers leave for months to pick crops in Michigan or North Dakota. ...
Money in the middle
(06/06/02) Gordonville and Allenville are best and worst for median incomes in the county. By Mark Bliss ~ Southeast Missourian Terry Irwin doesn't need census statistics to know he's living the good life. Irwin lives in a 4-year-old home with a well-landscaped yard on a street of upscale homes in Gordonville, Mo...
Haywood City residents' median income ranks lowest in area
(06/06/02) By Andrea L. Buchanan ~ Southeast Missourian HAYWOOD CITY, Mo. -- Once nicknamed "The Sands," because of its naturally occurring soft-sand roads, Haywood City has little else to set it apart from other rural villages in Missouri's Bootheel...
Cape County growth significant, but census errs
(02/24/02) Cape Girardeau County grew by more than 7,000 people in the past decade, fueled by a staggering 29 percent growth in the city of Jackson that made it the fastest growing town in Southeast Missouri. The county remains the most populated in Southeast Missouri. The 2000 census put the county's population at 68,693, up 11.5 percent from the 1990 census. Jackson's population stood at 11,947 in the most recent census...
State growth during '90s beats baby boom
(12/28/01) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The baby boom was big in Missouri. But with arrivals of senior citizens, Hispanics and other newcomers during the 1990s, Missouri's millennium boom was bigger. The state recorded its largest decennial population growth of the 20th century between 1990 and 2000, 9.3 percent, an increase fueled more by migration than births and deaths...
Cities growing less segregated
(12/03/01) ST. LOUIS -- Census figures showing sharp declines in racial disparity in Missouri's largest cities during the 1990s may be tied to blacks migrating to suburbs after benefitting from the nation's robust economy during much of that decade, observers theorize...
Census - State's poverty lower than U.S.
(11/20/01) Valerie Watson reports increased demand for goods from Kansas City's Harvester food bank. In Southeast Missouri's Bootheel, Dorene Johnson is juggling requests to her community agency for rural utility assistance. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 11.5 percent of Missourians were living below the poverty level last year, one percentage point beneath the national figure...
Cape area hoping to become 'urbanized'
(11/09/01) In 1991, the U.S. Census Bureau announced 33 new urbanized areas, a population-based designation that allowed those growing cities strong voices in local transportation decisions and planning. The greater Cape Girardeau area wasn't among them, although its leaders hoped it would be...
31 million immigrants live in U.S., says census
(10/25/01) WASHINGTON -- Roughly 8 million illegal immigrants live in the United States, early estimates from the 2000 census show, swelling the country's foreign-born population to more than 31 million people. More detailed figures are due from the Census Bureau next month, and a final count of the foreign born population will be released next year...
U.S. poverty rate declines to lowest level since 1974
(09/26/01)
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. poverty rate dipped last year to its lowest level in over a quarter-century, driven down by a healthy economy that helped a broad range of workers. Incomes leveled off after years of increase. Overall, many analysts said the Census Bureau report released Tuesday offered a positive picture of the American economy -- at least before the financial unrest from the terrorist attacks... |