The World's Women and Girls 2011 Data Sheet

Source: Population Reference Bureau

In developing countries, 35 percent of women ages 20 to 24 report having been married by age 18. And, in the poorest regions of the world, according to The World's Women and Girls 2011 Data Sheet, the proportion is even higher, with levels ranging from 45 percent in South Central Asia to nearly 40 percent in sub-Saharan Africa. Nine countries have prevalence rates above 50 percent.

Despite legal means, early marriage (before the age of 18) persists, along with the associated risks of adolescent childbearing. Early marriage can also curtail the opportunities girls may have for education. In countries and regions with the highest proportions of early marriage, girls' educational attainment is adversely affected. Literacy rates, primary school completion, and secondary school enrollment are all lower than that of boys.

Products Born To Fail

Click the image to enlarge

Via: Fixr

Tax Data from the Tax Foundation

State Sales, Gasoline, Cigarette, and Alcohol Tax Rates by State, 2000-2010. Plus links to other interesting info.

State of the News Media 2010

From Pew Research:

The future of news ultimately rests on...long-term concerns: What are the prospects for alternative journalism organizations that are forming around the country? Will traditional media adapt and innovate amid continuing pressures to thin their ranks?

And with growing evidence that conventional advertising online will never sustain the industry, what progress is being made to find new revenue for financing the gathering and reporting of news?

Census Bureau Survey Shows Poverty is Primarily a Temporary Condition

Poverty is not necessarily a permanent condition, according to a report released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau. While 29 percent of the nation’s population was in poverty for at least two months between the start of 2004 and the end of 2006, only 3 percent were poor during the entire period.

The report, Dynamics of Economic Well-Being: Poverty, 2004-2006, traces a sample of U.S. residents over the aforementioned 36-month period and examines how many of them were poor during at least some portion of that time and how long their poverty spells lasted. It also looks at how many fell into poverty, how many climbed out of it and how many stayed poor during the period. The data are presented by various demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.

The data were collected by the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) between February 2004 and May 2007 from a representative sample of U.S. households who were interviewed every four months during the period. These estimates should not be confused with the official poverty estimates, which are based on the Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement. The CPS captures a snapshot of well-being at a single point in time. See HERE. Limited data from more recent SIPP interviews are available. Tables on the Census Bureau website and in the appendix of the report provide some estimates for 2007 and 2009.

According to the report, poverty can be a persistent condition: among the 33 million people who were poor at the start of the period — January and February 2004 — 23 percent remained poor throughout the next 34 months.

However, many people did escape poverty: 12 million, or 42 percent, who were poor in the 2004 calendar year were not in poverty in 2006.

As some moved out of poverty, others moved into it. About 10 million who were not in poverty (4 percent) in 2004 slipped into poverty by 2006.

Other highlights include:

-- For those who were in poverty for two or more consecutive months from 2004 to 2006, the median length of a poverty spell was 4.5 months. Almost half of such spells ended within four months while about 12 percent lasted more than 24 months.

-- More than half of those who did exit poverty continued to have income that was not significantly above the poverty level (less than 150 percent of the poverty threshold).

-- Children younger than 18 tended to stay poor longer than working-age adults (ages 18-64): the median length of their poverty spells was 5.2 months, while for those 18 to 64, the median was 4.2 months. Older adults (65 and older) had the longest stays in poverty of any age group: a median spell of 6.7 months.

-- People in female-led families had longer median poverty spells than those in married-couple families.

Breakdown of Birth

Via: Ultrasound Technician

Government Employment & Payroll

Census Bureau collects federal, state and local government payroll data. It is NOT considered confidential under Title 13. The most recent data on employment and payroll is for 2009.

St. Patrick’s Day

Irish-American Heritage Month (March) and St. Patrick’s Day (March 17): 2011

Originally a religious holiday to honor St. Patrick, who introduced Christianity to Ireland in the fifth century, St. Patrick's Day has evolved into a celebration for all things Irish. The world's first St. Patrick's Day parade occurred on March 17, 1762, in New York City, featuring Irish soldiers serving in the English military. This parade became an annual event, with President Truman attending in 1948. Congress proclaimed March as Irish-American Heritage Month in 1995, and the President issues a proclamation commemorating the occasion each year.

Population Distribution

36.9 million
Number of U.S. residents who claimed Irish ancestry in 2009. This number was more than eight times the population of Ireland itself (4.5 million).
Irish was the nation's second most frequently reported ancestry, trailing only German.
Sources: 2009 American Community Survey and Ireland Central Statistics Office

122,000
Number of Irish-born U.S. residents in 2009. Those from Ireland are much older (a median of 60 years old) and have a higher median household income
($56,158) than U.S. residents as a whole (37 years and $50,221, respectively).
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

24%
Percent of Massachusetts residents who were of Irish ancestry in 2009. This compares with a rate of 12 percent for the nation as a whole.
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

Irish-Americans Today

32% Percentage of people of Irish ancestry, 25 or older, who had a bachelor's degree or higher. In addition, 92 percent of Irish-Americans in this age group had at least a high school diploma. For the nation as a whole, the corresponding rates were 28 percent and 85 percent respectively.
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

$56,383
Median income for households headed by an Irish-American, higher than the $50,221 for all households. In addition, 10 percent of people of Irish ancestry were in poverty, lower than the rate of 14 percent for all Americans.
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

40%
Percentage of employed civilian Irish-Americans 16 or older who worked in management, professional and related occupations. Additionally, 27 percent worked in sales and office occupations; 16 percent in service occupations; 9 percent in production, transportation and material moving occupations; and 8 percent in construction, extraction, maintenance and repair occupations.
Source: 2009 American Community Survey

70%
Percentage of householders of Irish ancestry who owned the home in which they live, with the remainder renting. For the nation as a whole, the homeownership rate was 66 percent.
Source: 2009 American Community Survey


Places to Spend the Day

4
Number of places in the United States named Shamrock, the floral emblem of Ireland. Mount Gay-Shamrock, W.Va., and Shamrock, Texas, were the most populous, with 2,623 and 1,828 residents, respectively. Shamrock Lakes, Ind., had 152 residents and Shamrock, Okla., 122. (Statistic for Mount Gay-Shamrock is from the 2000 Census; the other statistics are 2009 estimates.)
Sources: American FactFinder and population estimates

9
Number of places in the United States that share the name of Ireland's capital, Dublin. Since the 2000 Census, Dublin, Calif., has surpassed Dublin, Ohio, as the most populous of these places (44,541 compared with 39,310, respectively, as of July 1, 2009).

If you're still not into the spirit of St. Paddy's Day, then you might consider paying a visit to Emerald Isle, N.C., with 3,695 residents.
Other appropriate places in which to spend the day: the township of Irishtown, Ill., several places or townships named ''Clover" (in South Carolina, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) and the township of Cloverleaf, Minn.
Sources: American FactFinder and population estimates

The Celebration

26.1 billion and 2.3 billion
U.S. beef and cabbage production, respectively, in pounds, in 2009. Corned beef and cabbage is a traditional St. Patrick's Day dish.
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service - beef, and cabbage.

$25 million
Value of potted florist chrysanthemum sales at wholesale in 2009 for operations with
$100,000 or more sales. Lime green chrysanthemums are often requested for St. Patrick's Day celebrations.
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service

2011 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures

The Alzheimer’s Association Facts and Figures report (PDF) details the growing prevalence and escalating impact of Alzheimer’s and dementia on individuals, caregivers, families, government and the nation’s healthcare system.

Unpaid caregivers and stress
There are nearly 15 million Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers providing 17 billion hours of unpaid care valued at $202 billion. Facts and Figures finds that caregivers not only suffer emotionally but also physically. Because of the toll of caregiving on their own health, Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers had $7.9 billion in additional health care costs in 2010. More than 60 percent of family caregivers report high levels of stress because of the prolonged duration of caregiving and 33 percent report symptoms of depression.


Deaths from Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer’s is the sixth-leading cause of death in the country and the only cause of death among the top 10 in the United States that cannot be prevented, cured or even slowed. Based on mortality data from 2000-2008, death rates have declined for most major diseases while deaths from Alzheimer’s disease have risen 66 percent during the same period.

Updated Legislative Spending Posted Online

New York's State Legislature spent $114 million during the six-month period ending last September, according to the latest legislative expenditure data posted at SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center's transparency website. SeeThroughNY now includes four full years of legislative expenditures, in what has become the most extensive searchable database of its kind available to New Yorkers on the Internet.
The expenditure information can be sorted by reporting period, expenditure type, and member name. Users can also isolate spending for individual units of the legislature's central staff...

For the full text of the Press Release, click here.
To go right to the database, click here.

No more Statistical Abstract?

A librarian posted this on the BUSLIB (Business Librarian) listserv this afternoon:

I couldn't take the uncertainty anymore so I called the Census Bureau and spoke to Ian O'Brien who's the Chief of the Statistical Compendia Branch. He said that the 2012 budget doesn't include funding for his branch, which would mean the elimination of not only the Statistical Abstract, but all titles produced by that branch (State and Metropolitan Area Data Book, County and City Data Book, etc.). No new editions would be produced in print or online.

I asked if there was any hope of changing this and he said that there's always a chance that Congress could be convinced to continue funding for the program. He said those who would like to save the Statistical Compendia Branch could write to their Senators and Representatives. I'm guessing this would go for the Federal Financial
Statistics Program as well.

So, start writing your letters and encourage others to do the same.

Global Commercial Property

For commercial real estate, you may want to look for sqm or m2 (meters) instead of sq ft.

RICS Global Commercial Property Surveys (quarterly)

Page Rank checker -My new favorite waste of time

Check PAGE RANK of Web site pages Instantly. "In order to check pagerank of a single web site, web page or domain name, please submit the URL of that web site, web page or domain name."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/ 10
http://www.sba.gov/ 9 (Small Business Administration)
http://www.state.ny.us/ 9 (state of New York)
http://www.ibm.com 8
http://www.nyssbdc.org 6 (New York State Small Business Development Center)
http://www.timesunion.com 6 (Times Union newspaper, Albany, NY)
http://nysdca.blogspot.com 6 (Data Detectives - the blog of the NYS Data Center affiliates)
http://sbdcrn.blogspot.com 5 (blog of the New York State Small Business Development Center)
http://www.whitehouse.com 5 (spoof of White House site)
http://www.rogerogreen.com 4 (my primary blog)

Demographic Data Workshop: Uses, Sources and Tools

"Demographic Data Workshop: Uses, Sources and Tools"
Date & Time: March 15, 2011 from 9:30 am-12:00 pm
On-campus: Room 300 Rice Hall, Cornell University
Via webinar: See below to register to participate in the workshop online.

Description: Demographic and economic data is invaluable when creating community master plans, planning and evaluating programs, applying for grants, assessing need and demand for products or services, and many other activities. This workshop will provide participants with an overview of how to access and use the latest American Community Survey and other census data via the U.S. Census Bureau's new American FactFinder tool, and highlight on-line data and tools from Cornell University's own Program on Applied Demographics, including population estimates, projections, school district and local government data.

Presenters: Arthur Bakis, U.S. Census Bureau – Boston Regional Office, Joe Francis and Jan Vink, Cornell University Program on Applied Demographics (PAD), and Robin Blakely-Armitage, Community & Regional Development Institute (CaRDI).

To register to participate by webinar, click here.

General questions: Contact Robin Blakely-Armitage at rmb18@cornell.edu.
Webinar-related questions: Contact Heidi Mouillesseaux-Kunzman at hmm1@cornell.edu

Analysis of County Boundary Differences Between 2000 and 2010 Census Geographies

by Joe Francis, Cornell Program on Applied Demographics

Background

Without doubt, data from the 2010 Decennial Census will show changes in the size, composition and distribution of the population in New York State compared to those same indicators from the 2000 Census. These changes will occur at all levels—county, towns, cities and places, tracts, block groups and blocks. In addition to changes in counts of population and housing units, as well as age, sex and racial groupings, there will be changes to the geographies associated with those levels.


While it is common practice to examine the population and housing changes amongst the administrative units under our respective purviews, we are less familiar with examining the changes in the spatial extent and composition of those same administrative units and component geographies (i.e. tracts, block groups, blocks). Consequently, census geographies have been of less concern. Yet we all know that changes in counts may be a function of both population dynamics and changes in redrawn boundaries that enlarge, shrink or reshape the county, town, city, and so forth. Failure to consider that geographies have changed means that when we compare population and housing changes across time, we are assuming that the spatial units have remained constant. Frequently this is an erroneous assumption which can lead to bad analysis and interpretation.

Purpose of Analysis

The purpose of this analysis of boundary differences is to examine the extent to which the changes we observe when comparing data from the 2000 Decennial Census to the 2010 Decennial could be a function of changes in geographies as well as a function of natural increase/decrease and net migration. By examining these boundary changes we establish a firmer basis for asserting that the changes (1) are due entirely to the demographic forces of natural increase/decrease and net migration or (2) are partly due entirely to boundary changes as well, or (3) are due to both.

There are two main reasons for raising the importance of boundary changes at this time. One is that these changes affect not only the Decennial Census but the American Community Survey data products as well. The second reason is that recent advances in GIS technology easily permit such an examination and thereby remove the anxiety of not knowing whether the assumption of common geographies from time one to time two to time three are constant.


True enough that boundary changes only immediately impact comparisons between decennial censuses, but in the not too distant future, that same issue will arise for the American Community Survey (ACS) data as well. As you know, the already reported ACS data are mainly based on 2000 census geography but within two years we face the additional complication of the ACS being tagged to the 2010 census geography (i.e. changes in geographies). Even now some ACS data are based on the 2010 geographies while other ACS data are not. (For additional details, see this Census page.)

Procedure

To increase our understanding of the size and structure of these boundary changes between 2000 and 2010 Census geography, the Cornell Program on Applied Demographics decided to examine the changes starting with changes in county boundaries. With the hope that this investigation will prove of some use to the Affiliates, we share our findings. This report is restricted to county boundary changes. A later report will be about sub-county boundary changes. All analyses were conducted using ArcGIS 10. Details of procedures used can be provided to interested users by writing to Joe Francis (jdf2@cornell.edu) .

Overall Results

Because county boundaries in New York have been relatively stable for over 70 years, we decided to begin the examination here, expecting few changes and a belief that this would be a good testing ground for working out a boundary examination and reporting procedure. To our surprise, there were 79 boundary changes detected in total at the county level. Not all 62 counties had a boundary change but several had more than one boundary difference involved. Montgomery County had the most with 11 differences. Fulton was next with 9. Orleans and Otsego each had 6. Sullivan had 5. Orange, Wyoming and Yates each had 4. Delaware and Schenectady both had 3. Albany, Chautauqua, Schuyler and Tompkins had 2. On the other hand, Allegany, Cattaraugus, Columbia, Hamilton, Herkimer, Oneida, Saratoga, Schoharie, Seneca and St. Lawrence each had 1 boundary change. Three of the observed changes involved counties along the Pennsylvania state line.


Upon examining these 2000-2010 discrepancies about half of them were long narrow slivers involving no housing units and were boundary adjustments we felt weren’t worth reporting. (If there is interest in these, we are happy to provide the details.) For this report, a decision was made to restrict our mapping and reporting to those differences involving at least an acre (4069 sq. meters) or more of land mass. This reduced the number to 42. Counties with 5 boundary differences of an acre or more included Fulton, Montgomery and Otsego. Delaware and Sullivan had 3, while Albany, Orleans and Wyoming had 2. Allegany, Cattaraugus, Hamilton, Herkimer, Oneida, Orange, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, St. Lawrence, Tioga, Washington, Wayne, and Yates had one each. Of course every boundary involves at least two counties, so more counties were involved than the above list indicates.


Not all of the 42 mapped boundary differences contain significant number of housing units (and therefore people), but a quick look at the jpeg files POSTED HERE will enable you to see what these boundary changes look like. Then you can decide whether or not the change is worth taking a closer look. Like any choice of a threshold cut-point, the choice of one acre or more was arbitrary but based on the idea that land area of that size could accommodate a significant housing worth looking into. In retrospect, we should have moved the threshold higher for the county boundary examination.

Next Steps

Because we are trying to document discrepancies that are of concern to you and report them to the Census Bureau, please let us know your concerns.


For our part at the Program on Applied Demographics, we plan to begin analysis of sub-county geographies next. We expect to see more and more significant changes at that level. Compared to counties, MCD are the next most stable administrative units. If analysis of MCS all works out, we will then move to tracts which involve more fluid dynamics.

Women in National Parliaments

The data in the table has been compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union on the basis of information provided by National Parliaments by 31 January 2011. 188 countries are classified by descending order of the percentage of women in the lower or single House.

In the United States of America, of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, 73 or 16.8%, are women, making it tied with Turkmenistan for 72nd place. Incidentally, 17 of the 100 U.S. Senators (17.0%) are female.

Bankruptcy stats

You can get all the bankruptcy stats you need from the US Bankruptcy Court site.

7 Billion: Are You Typical?

Are you a 28-year old man from China?
From National Geographic Magazine

Patents databases

A nifty wiki of patent databases.

A home purchased in 1890 is NOW worth…

...pretty much what you bought it for 120 years ago...taking inflation into account. As DD Dale said, "Great investment, huh?"