Friday, December 31, 2010

World's top destinations for 2011

(CNN) -- Where on Earth will you find yourself in 2011?

Here's wishing it's somewhere unforgettable -- and the time to plan your journey is now, as the New Year brings the customary yearning for a fresh start and the promise of new people and places.

To set your itinerary in motion, we sought out recommendations from three travel experts: Robert Reid, U.S. travel editor for Lonely Planet; Pauline Frommer, creator of Pauline Frommer's guidebooks; and Martin Rapp, senior vice president of leisure sales at Altour.

Here are nine of their top destinations for 2011:

1. New York

A huge tourist destination in any year, the city will be especially unforgettable as it marks the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks next year.

Visitors who have been flocking to ground zero are finally expected to get a chance to pay their respects to the victims at the National September 11 Memorial, which is scheduled to open in time for the anniversary.

"It's going to be a massive moment for New York," Reid said. "It feels like the healing begins."

Visitors also shouldn't miss the High Line, once an abandoned elevated railway track that's been turned into a popular park. It expands in the spring, to the delight of New Yorkers.

"It was like a secret garden in the middle of New York," Frommer said. "It's become a park that other urban centers are studying because it's brought new life, a new vitality into the area below it."

No wonder the Big Apple tops Lonely Planet's list of top 10 cities for 2011....

More at link above.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Comparing DNA Profiling & Databases in the US and England

Many senior U.S. law enforcement officials believe that the English criminal justice system has capitalized more fully on the crime-fighting potential of forensic DNA evidence than the U.S. criminal justice system. They contend that the English system is much faster at testing DNA samples and at uploading the test results into its forensic DNA database and that the English national DNA database provides more database hits that might help law enforcement solve and prevent crimes. Members of the RAND Center on Quality Policing (CQP) asked RAND researchers to explore the forensic DNA analysis systems in England and the United States to find out whether these perceptions are accurate. This report presents CQP's best efforts to undertake this comparative analysis, which was severely hampered by a lack of data on the U.S. and English forensic DNA systems and the unwillingness of some U.S. agencies to share their data.

County Compensation by Industry, 2009

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

Compensation declined in two-thirds of the 3,113 counties in the U.S. in 2009, according to statistics released this week by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Total compensation of U.S. workers contracted 3.2 percent in 2009, as a decline in employment more than offset the increase in average annual compensation per job, which grew 1.2 percent to $56,962. Inflation measured by the national price index for personal consumption expenditures, grew 0.2 percent.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Births: Preliminary Data for 2009

Source: National Center for Health Statistics

The 2009 preliminary number of US births declined 3 percent from 2008, to 4,131,019; the 2009 general fertility rate (66.7 per 1,000 women) and the total fertility rate (2,007.5 births per 1,000) declined (3-4 percent). The number of births and rates declined for all race and Hispanic origin groups in 2009.

• The birth rate for US teenagers 15-19 fell 6 percent to 39.1 per 1,000, a record low for the Nation.

• Birth rates for younger and older teenagers and for Hispanic, non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Asian or Pacific Islander teenagers all reached historic lows in 2009.

• The birth rates for women in their early twenties fell (7 percent, the largest percentage decline for this age group since 1973) as did the rates for women in their late twenties and thirties; the birth rate for women in their early forties increased in 2009.

• The birth rate for unmarried women declined almost 4 percent to 50.6 per 1,000 aged 15-44. The number of nonmarital births fell 2 percent to 1,693,850 in 2009, the first decline since 1996-1997.

• The percentage of births to unmarried women, however, continued to increase in 2009

• The cesarean delivery rate rose to 32.9 percent in 2009, another record high.

• The preterm birth rate declined for the third straight year to 12.18 percent of all births.

• The low birthweight rate was essentially unchanged between 2008 and 2009 at 8.16 percent in 2009, but is down from 2006.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

2010 Census: South and West Advance (Without California)

The full article.

For a hundred years, Americans have been moving south and west. This, with an occasional hiccup, has continued, according to the 2010 Census.
During the 2000s, 84 percent of the nation's population growth was in the states of the South and West...while growth has been far slower in the Northeast and Midwest. This follows a pattern now four decades old, in which more than 75 percent of the nation's population growth has been in the South and West. Indeed in every census period since the 1920s the South and West attracted a majority of the population growth.
In the first census after World War II, in 1950, the East and the Midwest accounted for 58 percent of the nation's population, with the South and West making up 42 percent. Since that time, the East and the Midwest have added less than 40 million people, while the South and West added nearly 120 million. Today, the ratios are nearly reversed, with 60 percent of the population living in the South and West and only 40 percent in the East and Midwest....

New York continued its laggard performance, gaining only 2.1%. Since the late 1960s, New York (long the largest state) has added little more than one million people, while California added 19 million and has nearly doubled New York's population...

The Northeast: The nation's former commercial heartland, the Northeast, has for its third census placed as the nation's least populated region. A prediction in 1950 that the region housing New York, Philadelphia and Boston would fall so much in relative terms would have been considered absurd. Yet, from 1950 to 2010, the region added 16 million people, for the lowest regional growth rate (40%). The region added less than 2,000,000 population between 2000 and 2010, for a growth rate of 3.2%. The fastest growing state was New Hampshire, at 6.5%, reflecting the growth of its Boston suburbs and exurbs. All other states had growth rates less than one-half of the national rate.

"Kudos" to the Bureau of the Census: Finally, congratulations are due the Bureau of the Census. In 2000, the Bureau was embarrassed by its under-estimation of the population during the previous decade. At the 1990 to 1999 estimation rate, the 2000 population would have been nearly 7,000,000 below the number of people actually counted in the census. The improvement during the decade of the 2000s was substantial. At the 2000 to 2009 estimate rate, the nation would have had 500,000 more people than were counted in 2010. Missing by less than 0.2 percent is pretty impressive.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Victims of Identity Theft, 2008

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics

Presents findings from the 2008 Identity Theft Supplement (ITS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The NCVS/ITS used interviews from a nationally representative sample of about 56,500 U.S. household residents to collect the first BJS data on individual victims of identity theft. Identity theft is defined as the unauthorized use or attempted use of existing accounts, the unauthorized use or attempted use of personal information to open a new account, and the misuse or attempted use of personal information for a fraudulent purpose. The report details the number and percentage of persons who reported at least one incident of identity theft over the past two years, the amount of direct and indirect financial loss due to identity theft, victim reporting to credit bureaus and law enforcement agencies, and the impact of identity theft on victims'lives.

•An estimated 11.7 million persons, representing 5% of all persons age 16 or older in the United States, experienced at least one type of identity theft in a 2-year period.
•Although the total financial cost of identity theft was nearly $17.3 billion over a 2-year period, less than a quarter (23%) of identity theft victims suffered an out-of-pocket financial loss from the victimization.
•About 42% of victims spent 1 day or less working to resolve the financial and credit problems associated with the identity theft; however, 3% continued to experience problems related to the theft more than 6 months after discovering it.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

2009 Census of Horticultural Species

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture (Agricultural Statistics Service)

The 2009 Census of Horticulture counted 21,585 operations in the United States with sales of $10,000 or more in horticultural specialty crops, a decrease of 2,173 operations since the 1998 Census of Horticulture. Sales of horticultural crops only increased by 10 percent over this period, compared to a 60 percent increase for all crop commodities.

Categories where sales increased more than average include food crops grown under cover, bedding plants, nursery stock and propagative materials. Categories with a lower than average change in sales include sod, potted flowering plants, cut Christmas trees, dried bulbs, cut flowers and cut cultivated greens.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Personal Health Care Spending Differs by Gender, Age

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/early/2010/12/07/hlthaff.2010.0216.full Pronounced Gender And Age Differences Are Evident In Personal Health Care Spending Per Person

The research of Health Affairs found significant variations in per person spending by gender across age groups, health services, and types of payers. For example, in 2004 per capita health care spending for females was 32 percent more than for males. Per capita differences were most pronounced among the working-age population, largely because of spending for maternity care. Except for children, total spending for and by females was greater than that for and by males, for most services and payers. The gender difference in total spending was most pronounced in the elderly, as a result of the longer life expectancy of women.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Inheritance and Wealth Transfer to Baby Boomers

Source: MetLife Mature Market Institute

The figures, drawn from national survey data, say the wealthiest Boomers will be given an average of $1.5 million, while those at the other end of the spectrum will be left $27,000, an amount that represents a larger percentage of the latter group’s overall wealth. Two-thirds of all Boomers stand to receive some inheritance over their lifetimes.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

What Is the Price of College?

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

This Statistics in Brief describes the annual price of education among undergraduates enrolled in U.S. postsecondary institutions in 2007–08. The most recent administration of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) supplied the data.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

A New Portrait of America, 1st 2010 Census Results


The first release.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that the 2010 Census showed the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2010, was 308,745,538.

The resident population represented an increase of 9.7 percent over the 2000 U.S. resident population of 281,421,906... The U.S. resident population represents the total number of people in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The most populous state was California (37,253,956); the least populous, Wyoming (563,626). The state that gained the most numerically since the 2000 Census was Texas (up 4,293,741 to 25,145,561) and the state that gained the most as a percentage of its 2000 Census count was Nevada (up 35.1% to 2,700,551).

Regionally, the South and the West picked up the bulk of the population increase, 14,318,924 and 8,747,621, respectively. But the Northeast and the Midwest also grew: 1,722,862 and 2,534,225.

Additionally, Puerto Rico's resident population was 3,725,789, a 2.2 percent decrease over the number counted a decade earlier.


Just before today's announcement, the apportionment counts were delivered to President Obama, 10 days before the statutory deadline of Dec. 31. The apportionment totals were calculated by a congressionally defined formula, in accordance with Title 2 of the U.S. Code, to divide among the states the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The apportionment population consists of the resident population of the 50 states, plus the overseas military and federal civilian employees and their dependents living with them who could be allocated to a state. Each member of the House represents, on average, about 710,767 people. The populations of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are excluded from the apportionment population, as they do not have voting seats in Congress.

"The decennial count has been the basis for our representative form of government since 1790". "At that time, each member of the House represented about 34,000 residents. Since then, the House has more than quadrupled in size, with each member now representing about 21 times as many constituents."

President Obama will transmit the apportionment counts to the 112th Congress during the first week of its first regular session in January. The reapportioned Congress will be the 113th, which convenes in January 2013.

Beginning in February and wrapping up by March 31, 2011, the Census Bureau will release demographic data to the states on a rolling basis so state governments can start the redistricting process.

Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution calls for a census of the nation's population every 10 years to apportion the House seats among the states. The 2010 Census is the 23rd census in our nation's history.

Many Americans Go To Work While Sick

Americans not taking sick days

Nearly half (44%) of Americans would consider going to work with a fever, and about a third of Americans (32 percent) said they would show up to work no matter how sick they get, according to a new survey from Halls.

With an unemployment rate upwards of nine percent this October, according to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the survey revealed that one in five Americans (19 percent) feel pressure by their boss or supervisor to head into work when they're sick. One in three (31 percent) Americans said they wouldn't get paid for taking off on a sick day, and one in 10 (11 percent) said they would likely fall behind on their bills by taking a sick day. Additionally, more than 10 percent of Americans thought they would not likely receive their next pay raise or promotion, or worse, would lose their job for calling out sick.

More HERE.

Census Data: Blacks and Hispanics Take Different Segregation Paths

Source: Brookings Institution

Every 10 years the census provides us with a view of racial segregation across America’s neighborhoods. We still have a few months before the 2010 census gives us those definitive numbers. However, the recent release of the huge five year data dump of the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for 2005 through 2009, provides us with a clue about what we can expect.

To be sure, we are a country that is heavily sorted by race and Hispanic status across the 65,000 census tracts (groupings of neighborhoods of 5,000 to 10,000 persons) that span our nation. Although the U.S. minority population grew at five times the rate of whites since 2000, the average white resident lives in a tract that is 79 percent white. The average black resident lives in a tract that is 46 percent black. And while Hispanics comprise only 15 percent of the population, fully 45 percent of their neighbors are also Hispanic. Surely we are far from the residential melting pot that many people envision—but the small sliver of individuals who identify themselves as “multiracial” do live in neighborhoods that are fairly diverse.

New Racial Segregation Measures for States and Large Metropolitan Areas: Analysis of the 2005-2009 American Community Survey

Monday, December 20, 2010

Music Key to Raising Kids' IQ by Sharon Burch

In past generations, singing and playing instruments was an integral part of family life. A great way to express and entertain yourself and others. We did not realize it, but we were also exercising our brain while we played, causing us to be creative, more vibrant, smarter, etc. In our current generation, we tend to be passive listeners and consumers as a society, and as a result, shorting our mental development and our children the opportunity to reach their mental potential.

Humans are "wired" for music. Until recently, scientists did not know how music affected the brain. The advancement in technology allows scientists to actually "see" brain activity via PET scans and MRI imaging scanning the blood flow in the brain. Our brains are "wired" with neural pathways. Most activities only cause a portion of the brain to "light up" with activity; thus, the saying, right brain/left brain, etc. But there are actually four parts to the brain and music makes ALL of the areas "light up" and create new neural pathways as a person is learning and playing an instrument. Those neural pathways remain in tact and can be used for other things besides music.


Norman Doidge, in his book, The Brain That Changes Itself, shares case after case of people forcing their brain to change and adapt either voluntarily with discipline, or involuntarily due to odd incidences. Studies confirm that our brain has plasticity. "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" is proven to be a case of "can't want to," rather than too old to change.

Daniel Levitin passionately explores the connection between Music and the Brain in his book of the same name. Google his name, watch video clips on YouTube, or go to his website. It's an exciting time of discovering how little we know and how much there is to learn. There is definitely enough evidence to recognize it is not in a music teacher's imagination. Music has a huge impact on activity in the brain. You can physically/visually see the growth and changes that happen inside the brain. The possibilities are endless. The implications for music therapy and music education are profound. Just check out PBS video "The Music Instinct." Neurologist and author, Oliver Sacks relays a true story from his book, Musicophilia, where a man was indirectly struck by lightning through a telephone and three weeks later composing and playing the piano for the first time. Sacks believes the man was "re-wired" through that experience. The list goes on and on.

But even if you are still skeptical about music making kids smarter, let's look at the other benefits. Socially, music is an ageless hobby creating interaction with great people. Take a look at any school band or orchestra or top-ranking choir and you will find a huge percentage of the members are in the top 10 percent of their class and college bound. Striving for excellence is a given in a musical group. Everyone has to perfect their part for the group to perform at their best--NObody "sits on the bench." Everyone has to pull their weight or the whole group suffers. Creativity, especially in jazz groups is developed, honed and embraced. Who couldn't use more creativity in their workforce? Creativity is what makes the difference and gives any company the cutting edge.

There are many benefits of being involved in making music, but the neural pathways drives home the point and gets our attention. Scientists are reluctant to state that playing a musical instrument makes you smarter, but all the indicators are there, so let's look at it from the opposite angle. Instead of trying to prove that music makes you smarter or good for you and your child, try to prove that it is not. I can't think of a single reason how learning a musical instrument is detrimental, can you?

Give your child every opportunity and advantage you can. Enroll them in music lessons and watch them grow and mentally develop as they play, create, express, and struggle through the rigors of the discipline mastering an instrument. You will discover a more creative, brighter and mature person in the making.

~~~
Nationally regarded music education teacher and advocate Sharon Burch is the author of Freddie the Frog® - a fantastical 4-book with companion CD series that helps young children learn musical concepts while they are duly immersed in Freddie's colorfully illustrated adventures. She may be reached online at www.FreddieTheFrogBooks.com

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Pot, ecstasy use up, alcohol use down among US. teens

Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse

Several important findings come out of this year’s Monitoring the Future study, the 36th annual, national survey of American teens in a series that launched in 1975.

•Marijuana use, which had been rising among teens for the past two years, continues to rise again this year — a sharp contrast to the considerable decline of the preceding decade.
•Ecstasy use—which fell out of favor in the early 2000s as concerns about its dangers grew—appears to be making a comeback this year, following a considerable recent decline in the belief that its use is dangerous.
•Alcohol use—and, specifically, occasions of heavy drinking—continues its long-term decline among teens into 2010, reaching historically low levels.

Monitoring the Future, conducted by a team of social scientists at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, has been funded since its inception under a series of research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one of the National Institutes of Health. In 2010, more than 46,000 8th, 10th, and 12th graders, enrolled in nearly 400 secondary public and private schools, participated in the study.

The proportion of young people using any illicit drug has been rising over the past three years, due largely to increased use of marijuana—the most widely used of all the illicit drugs. The proportion of 8th graders who reported using at least one illicit drug in the prior 12 months (called annual prevalence) rose from 13% in 2007 to 16% in 2010, including a statistically significant increase of 1.6 percentage points this year. Among both 10th and 12th graders annual prevalence has increased by two percentage points since 2007. In 2010, the proportions using any illicit drug during the past year were 16%, 30%, and 38% in grades 8, 10, and 12 respectively.

Data Tables

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Mapping America

The NY Times today has a serious of articles about ACS2005-2009. Most interesting is the interactive map at the Census Tract level for the whole nation. The maps show household income, home value, education and race and ethnicity at each tract and also the percentage change from the Census 2000.

Here is the link. Mapping America: Every City, Every Block.

Some data folks, knowing the flaws in early ACS methodology, may grimace, especially with the Census 2000 comparisons. But it's out there.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Liber8


Liber8 is "An economic information portal for librarians and students" provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. It includes links to the International Economic Statistics (IES) Database, plus economic data and research articles. The "browse by subject" function is most useful.

Monday, December 13, 2010

CQ Press to Release Comprehensive Guide to ACS

Washington DC (December 13, 2010) – In a timely initiative that coincides with the first release of the full breadth of American Community Survey data by the Bureau of the Census, CQ Press will publish a free online Web site named A Timely Guide to the American Community Survey (ACS). The site, launched as a companion to the forthcoming reference work Encyclopedia of the U.S. Census, 2nd Edition, offers key context and analysis on how the new ACS data has become the primary U.S. government source of detailed demographic data. The site is available online at acsguide.cqpress.com.

Administered by the U.S. Census Bureau, the American Community Survey is an on-going sample of cities and communities all over the United States. Like the census, this survey provides information on the social, economic, and housing characteristics of the U.S. population. Unlike the decennial census, however, the ACS collects data on a continual basis. The Census Bureau releases the collected data in yearly, 3-year, and 5-year estimates; the 5-year data released on December 14, 2010 will be the first sample large enough to include all geographic areas down to census tract and block group levels.

Since about 90 percent of all local governments in the nation have fewer than 20,000 people and this year marks the first time these areas have received any ACS data, communities may have questions about what the ACS data means to them and how it can be used. Editors Margo J. Anderson, Constance F. Citro and Joseph J. Salvo have put together a comprehensive overview of the American Community Survey and its implications. This ACS Guide serves as a “what you need to know” and includes sections on the evolutionary history of the ACS, the methodology behind and content of the survey, the data products available from the ACS and where to find them, and how to use this data. Finally, they have also provided researchers a detailed bibliography for additional exploration on each topic. All of the information is collected in a searchable format at acsguide.cqpress.com

The ACS Guide is a select portion of the larger reference, CQ Press’ Encyclopedia of the U.S. Census, 2nd Edition, From the Constitution to the ACS and will be available December 14, 2010. The latest edition will provide updated information and expands the original data presented in the first edition, named a Best Reference Source by Library Journal in 2000, highlighting changes in the Census Bureau’s data collection and dissemination practices.

Free 5500

A nifty source. Tip of the hat to Hill Libraries:

Free5500.com contains PDFs of Forms 5500 from companies of all shapes and sizes. What is a Form 5500, you ask? It's a disclosure form required by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Depending on the Plan type and other factors, the accompanying schedules may include information such as ESOP (employee stock ownership program) information, financial information, service providers, financial transaction schedule, retirement plan information, and more.

Free5500.com requires free registration to access, but registration lets you search by company name, EIN, state, ZIP, area code, plan type or class, assets, and number of participants, and includes up to 10 years of historical forms. You can also print the PDF formatted documents. Note that the free access may limit you to forms that are at least 2 years old or so (a subscription may net you more current data, as well as other perks such as more robust searching).

Free5500.com is a service of Pension Data Resources, Inc., the publishers of the respected ERISA Red Book. Those who may find this site valuable include those in finance, insurance, securities, law, accounting, and many other related fields, as well as plan participants themselves.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

State Segway Laws

Source: Governors Highway Safety Association

Segway LLC manufactures electronically propelled two-wheeled devices designed to transport one person with a maximum speed of less than 20 mph. In most states, Segways must follow the rules pertaining to pedestrians while on roads and sidewalks, such as traveling on the left side of the road, facing traffic.

Some states have minimum age requirements for operators or mandate helmet use for certain ages. One state (New Jersey) requires helmet use for all ages. No states require the operator of an to be licensed. Segways are exempted from registration requirements.

To date, Segways have been classified as neither a motor vehicle nor a consumer product. The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a preliminary opinion that they should be considered "consumer products" and therefore not be regulated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This designation may change if Segways or other similar electronic personal mobility devices become more common.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Hate Crime Statistics- Compare & visualize the data

From Matthew Kopjak, FindTheBest Press/Media

On April 23, 1990, Congress passed the Hate Crime Statistics Act, which required the Attorney General to collect data ‘about crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity’ (U.S. Dept of Justice-FBI). The data visualized in this comparison was gathered from the 2008, FBI statistics on hate crimes and allows users to find and compare information about hate crime statistics.

Anti-Mental vs Anti-White vs Anti- Atheism vs Anti-Male Homosexual provides a side-by-side comparison of various statistics including: Bias, Total Offenses, Murder or Non-negligent Manslaughter, Forcible Rape, Aggravated Assault, Robbery, and more… Simply click Visualize in the top left corner to view graph statistics categorized by crime & bias. Whether you’re looking for information on the most common hate crime group, or statistics related to your race, religion, or sexual orientation, this resource will help you find the answers.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Class Differences: Online Education in the United States, 2010

Source: Sloan Consortium

The 2010 Sloan Survey of Online Learning reveals that enrollment rose by almost one million students from a year earlier. The survey of more than 2,500 colleges and universities nationwide finds approximately 5.6 million students were enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2009, the most recent term for which figures are available.
...
Other report findings include:

Almost two-thirds of for-profit institutions now say that online learning is a critical part of their long term strategy.
The 21%growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 2% growth in the overall higher education student population.
Nearly one-half of institutions report that the economic downturn has increased demand for face-to-face courses and programs.
Three-quarters of institutions report that the economic downturn has increased demand for online courses and programs.
The eighth annual survey, a collaborative effort between the Babson Survey Research Group and the College Board, is the leading barometer of online learning in the United States.

NEW American FactFinder available in January 2011

American FactFinder is the primary tool for accessing data on the 2010 Census, the American Community Survey, Population Estimates and eventually the Economic Census.

This link will help you navigate the new version of the American FactFinder page on the Census website. Please take some time to become familiar with the site before it goes live in January 2011.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Family Change and Time Allocation in American Families

Source: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation/Focus on Workplace Flexibility.

The paper discusses family demographic changes. Then, using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) and the historical time diary studies in the U.S., the author documents trends in parents' time spent in paid work, housework and childcare. The activities parents forego in order to meet work and family demands are also described. Finally, the author discusses time devoted to adult care and help given to adult children, elderly parents, and friends later in the life course.

Comparing 2005-2009 ACS 5-year estimates with Census 2000

The Census Bureau now includes guidelines for comparing the 5-year 2005-09 ACS data to 2000 data. Also, the Bureau provides a variable-specific drill-down tool.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

2010 Census Demographic Analysis Estimates Available

The Census Bureau just released the results from the 2010 Census Demographic Analysis project. These numbers are five plausible ESTIMATES of the national population that will be used to help evaluate the quality of the 2010 Census. They are NOT the actual 2010 Census enumerations, which will be released later this month.

The numbers being reported are: 2010 Demographic Analysis Resident Population Estimates for April 1, 2010 (in thousands)
Low 305,684
Middle Low 307,415
Middle 308,475
High Middle 310,038
High 312,713

You can find more details, including estimates for various age, race, Hispanic Origin, and sex groups HERE.

Hate Crime Statistics 2009

Source: The FBI

Of the 6,598 single-bias incidents, 48.5 percent were motivated by a racial bias, 19.7 percent were motivated by a religious bias, 18.5 percent were motivated by a sexual-orientation bias, and 11.8 percent were motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias. Bias against a disability accounted for 1.5 percent of single-bias incidents.
There were 4,793 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in 2009. Intimidation accounted for 45.0 percent of crimes against persons, simple assaults for 35.3 percent, and aggravated assaults for 19.1 percent. Other offenses, including nine forcible rapes and eight murders, accounted for the remainder.
There were 2,970 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property; most of these (83.0 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism.
The remaining 17.0 percent of crimes against property consisted of robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses.

An analysis of data for single-bias hate crime incident victims revealed that 48.8 percent were targeted because of the offender’s bias against a race, 18.9 percent because of a bias against a religious belief, 17.8 percent because of a sexual orientation bias, 13.3 percent because of an ethnicity/national origin bias, and 1.2 percent because of a disability bias.
Of the 6,225 known offenders, 62.4 percent were white, 18.5 percent were black, 7.3 percent were groups made up of individuals of various races (multiple races, group), 1.0 percent were American Indian/Alaskan Native, and 0.7 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander. The race was unknown for the remaining known offenders.
The largest percentage (31.3 percent) of hate crime incidents occurred in or near homes. In addition, 17.2 percent took place on highways, roads, alleys, or streets; 11.4 percent happened at schools or colleges; 6.1 percent in parking lots or garages; and 4.3 percent in churches, synagogues, or temples. The remaining 29.7 percent of hate crime incidents took place at other specified locations, multiple locations, or other/unknown locations.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Basic Facts About Low-income Children, 2009

Source: National Center for Children in Poverty

Children represent 25 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 36 percent of all people in poverty. Among children, 42 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five live in poor families. Winding up in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are significant factors related to children’s experiences with economic insecurity, such as race/ethnicity and parents’ education and employment. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents – highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Refreshed 2010 Census Website is now Live

The refreshed 2010 Census Website is now live, as of noon December 6, and can be found HERE.
Thank you.

Household Food Security in the United States, 2009

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service

Eighty-five percent of American households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2009, meaning that they had access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The remaining households (14.7 percent) were food insecure at least some time during the year, including 5.7 percent with very low food security. In households with very low food security, the food intake of one or more household members was reduced and their eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because the household lacked money and other resources for food. Prevalence rates of food insecurity and very low food security were essentially unchanged from 14.6 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively, in 2008, and remained at the highest recorded levels since 1995, when the first national food security survey was conducted.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Unemployment Assistance

The New York State Department of Labor devotes an entire section of its web site to "Unemployment Assistance" HERE. Information is available in ten languages in addition to English. Broad categories include General Unemployment Information, Claims and Eligibility Deadlines, and Information for Employers.

For those recently unemployed, the FAQ called "Before You Apply For Unemployment" is available HERE and a video "How to File an Unemployment Insurance Claim" can be viewed HERE.

The "Looking For a Job" section of the web site HERE provides links to information about finding employment, including assistance available from the Department of Labor.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Canada 2009 Data Tables Now Available on the TINET Website

The U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Travel and Tourism Industries (OTTI) announces the posting of data tables containing travel characteristics of Canadian travelers visiting the United States in 2009. Tables show visitor volume for each characteristic across U.S. regions and states and are available for the following items:

Visitors and visitor-nights
Trip purpose
Spending Activities
Province of residence
Age and gender
Mode of transportation
Nights spent in each state
Accommodations
Quarter of visit

The data tables are made available through OTTI's annual purchase of the data from Statistics Canada, the statistical agency of the Canadian government. The tables are in PDF format, and add to the series trend beginning with 2004. Tables containing the 2010 travel year should be posted to the TINET website in November 2011. Additionally, annual reports in PDF format will be available in January 2011 for the travel years 2005 through 2009. These reports provide additional insights into this important market through graphics and narrative.

The data tables may be found HERE.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

December 6 Census Bureau Data Release

At 10:00 AM on Monday, December 6 the Census Bureau will be releasing the very first data related to the 2010 Census. These are five series of ESTIMATES of the nation’s population broken down by age, race, Hispanic Origin, and gender. The purpose of these estimates is to provide a set of comparisons to the 2010 Census population counts to help measure the quality of the census. This release will contain ONLY data for the entire nation – there will be NO state-level data released at this time.

The first state-level data will be a count of the state’s total population and number of seats states will get in the House of Representatives starting in 2013. (New York to Lose 1 or 2 Seats in House.) This information will be released later this month – by law it must be provided to the President by December 31, 2010.

Population counts by race, Hispanic Origin, and age (total and 18 and older) for all areas within the state will be released sometime in February or March 2011. Again there is a legal deadline of March 31, 2011 for these data to be delivered to the state.

Census to Release New Data About Women-Owned Biz December 7

What: The U.S. Census Bureau will hold an audio news conference to release new data about women-owned businesses from the 2007 Survey of Business Owners. The data show the number and percent of women-owned businesses, sales and receipts at the national, state and local levels, as well as other details.

The event will consist of a simultaneous audio conference and online presentation. There will be no physical event associated with this conference. Information on accessing the online presentation is provided below. Reporters will be able to ask questions once the data presentation is complete. We suggest reporters log in and call in early.

When: Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010; 2 p.m. (EST)
Who: Thomas L. Mesenbourg, deputy director, U.S. Census Bureau
Rebecca Blank, acting deputy secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce
Dana M. Lewis, executive director, National Women's Business Council
Details:Audio conference — access information
Toll free number: 888-324-9312
Participant passcode: CENSUS
Note: Stay on the line until operator asks for the passcode. Do not key in passcode.

Online presentation — access information
Please login early, as some setup is required.
URL: https://www.mymeetings.com/nc/join/
Conference/meeting number: PW9619952
Conference/meeting passcode: CENSUS (case sensitive)

If closed captioning is required:

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

World AIDS Day

An estimated 1.1 million Americans are living with HIV, and yet one out of five don’t know it. World AIDS Day (December 1) is an opportunity to take action.