Each month the Census Counts team compiles Census-related news from a wide swath of national and regional media outlets to keep data equity stakeholders informed and engaged.
As always, you can find earlier clips here.
November 27, 2023 Census Coalition Clips
National
Stat News | News The next Census could undercount the number of disabled Americans by 20 million
About 20 million disabled people will be erased if the U.S. Census Bureau moves forward with changes to disability data collection methods. That is because many disabled people will no longer be counted as disabled by the new questions the Census is proposing to use starting in 2025 with the annual American Community Survey (ACS). If the Census changes its disability questions it will artificially reduce national estimates of disability almost by half, by the bureau’s own estimate. Any effort to undercount disabled people is alarming as the prevalence of disability is rising, not declining, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bonnielin Swenor and Scott Landes | November 27, 2023
Axios | News Zoomers will overtake boomers at work next year
Gen Z is expected to overtake baby boomers in the workforce by next year, per a new analysis of census data from Glassdoor. The workplace is giving more Gen Z energy — and if you don’t understand what that means, it’s time to bone up on the younger generation’s lingo and work style. The work world will surely adapt to Gen Z’s ways, as it once did for Gen X (which pushed for more work-life balance) and for millennials, who brought us job hopping and, of course, avocado toast.
Emily Peck | November 22, 2023
NPR | News Sometimes overlooked by campaigns, Native voters could decide major elections in 2024
Grassroots efforts to get Native American voters to turn in their ballots for the 2024 election are in motion across swing states as Democrats and Republicans are both vying for power. There are predicted to be at least 5 million Native and Alaska Native-identifying voters in the U.S. in both rural and urban communities, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — although estimates are expected to be an undercount. “Native Americans are incredibly influential and have the ability to really swing those elections on the margins,” said Jacqueline De León, a senior staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund, adding that she sees the potential for Native voters to decide elections where the population of Native Americans is bigger than the vote differentials that decide those races.
Ximena Bustillo | November 21, 2023
The Daily Signal | News Sens. Vance, Rubio Oppose Census Bureau Funding to Push Sexual Orientation-Gender Identity Agenda
The Census Bureau is asking Congress for $10 million to test sexual orientation and gender identity questions. The bureau informed Congress that the question or questions would be contained in the American Community Survey, which “generates data that help determine how more than $675 billion in federal and state funds are distributed each year.” There is an “emerging need of our nation to improve the measurement of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) population,” the bureau claims. “Improving how we collect data about sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations is a critical step in producing accurate data.”
Mike Gonzalez | November 20, 2023
States
Georgia
13WMAZ | News ‘Chance to vote for someone who looks like them’: State lawmakers holding meeting to discuss redistricting map changes
Central Georgians could soon see new voting districts and elect new state representatives. In October, a federal judge found several state legislative and congressional boundaries in violation of the Voting Rights Act. The U.S. census revealed Georgia’s black population has increased by almost 490,000 people since 2010, but the judge says the current legislative maps don’t represent that.
Megan Western | November 26, 2023
Kentucky
Courier Journal | News Written out of existence? Native Americans in Kentucky push for recognition of culture
Since the 1700s, Kentucky has been mythologized as the “Dark and Bloody Ground,” a pass-through region where Native American tribes battled and hunted, but never settled. That myth has endured to the present day. The federal government does not recognize any tribes in Kentucky, and the state doesn’t have a process for them to apply for formal recognition. But archeological evidence and current-day census data shows Kentucky has a long, rich history of indigenous people living here. Kentucky was home to tribes including the Cherokee, Shawnee and Chickasaw. Archaeologists have uncovered remains of over 37 permanent settlements spread throughout the state, according to R. Barry Lewis, the author of “Kentucky Archaeology.”
Sarah Hume | November 23, 2023
Blog Posts and Reports
U.S. Census Bureau | Press Release Three-Quarters of Children Younger Than 6 Years Old Live With Two Parents
Newly released estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual America’s Families and Living Arrangements show that living with two parents was more common for children at younger ages than older ages. In 2023, 75% of children under the age of 6 lived with two parents, compared to 68% of children between the ages of 12 and 17 who lived with two parents. Among children who lived with two parents, the majority lived with married parents. However, about 3.2 million children under age 18 lived with cohabiting parents in 2023, a significant increase from the 2.2 million children who lived with cohabiting parents in 2007.
Kristina Barrett | November 21, 2023
U.S. Census Bureau | Blog Post About 8.2 Million People Moved Between States in 2022
The number of people who moved between states rose from nearly 7.9 million people in 2021 to approximately 8.2 million people in 2022, according to newly released U.S. Census Bureau estimates. The American Community Survey (ACS) shows state-to-state movers also made up a larger share of all movers between 2021 and 2022, increasing from 18.8% to 19.9%. This increase in the number and share of state-to-state movers continued a decade-long trend of rising state-to-state migration even as overall migration has declined. Between 2021 and 2022, the overall national migration rate – the number of movers in the United States relative to the population age 1 year and over – dropped from 12.8% to 12.6%.
Mehreen S. Ismail | November 21, 2023
As always, you can find earlier clips here.
November 20, 2023 Census Coalition Clips
National
Ethnic Media Services | News Census Bureau Funding Still in GOP Sights Despite Latest Spending Bill
GOP proposed funding cuts for the Census Bureau threaten to harm low-income immigrant communities who are perpetually undercounted in the decennial census. Conservative lawmakers have made Census Bureau funding cuts an object of their partisan fight over federal spending. The current version of the CJS bill includes section 559, which proposes to exclude undocumented immigrants from the Census count, and a recent amendment seeks to exclude all immigrants from the count–despite both proposals likely being unconstitutional. Other proposed cuts would defund key research, planning, and improvements in data collection that the Bureau has prioritized in order to accurately count historically undercounted groups in the 2030 Census.
Edward Kissam | November 16, 2023
Governing | News New Data Hub Helps Explain Diversity in the Latino Community
A new resource from UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute, the Latino Data Hub, could help improve understanding of the diverse Latino community. The Latino demographic encompasses 21 nationalities and includes members of all races, yet the Census fails to capture this diversity by lumping together the entire population under a broad Latino category. The Latino Data Hub aims to make it easier for leaders to gain important insights about the Latino population that can inform government policy and practices. The new Hub allows users to access a range of information on the Latino community, including country of origin, citizenship status, employment, education, family wellness, and access to health insurance. The Hub draws on all the information collected by the Census Bureau, continuously updates the information with new data releases, allows users to make specific queries about any racial or ethnic group, and provides for sorting at country and state levels.
Carl Smith | November 17, 2023
States
California
El Tecolote | News California advocates continue the fight for better health data on indigenous communities
After Governor Newsom vetoed a bill that required the California Department of Social Services and the CalFresh Program to collect specific demographic and health data on Latino Indigenous groups, activists continue to fight for health and date equity for Latino Indigenous people whose identities and specific health needs continue to go unrecognized. Proponents of SB 435 hoped that disaggregated data would provide key insights into unique health needs and outcomes of Latino and Indigenous groups. Despite broad legislative support–passing with 79-0 votes in the Assembly and 39-0 in the Senate–Gov. Newsom vetoed the bill claiming it was “premature” ahead of the new OMB federal standards for collecting and reporting race and ethnicity information. Activists hope the bill will be reintroduced soon, but are now shifting their focus towards building trust among Latino and Indigenous people who have historically been hesitant to share their demographic information with government agencies.
Jasmine Aguilera | November 16, 2023
Texas
Every Texan | Report 2022 Census Data: The Uninsured Population of Texas
New U.S. Census estimates from mid-September show slight improvements in the number of uninsured Texans from 2021 to 2022. Seventeen percent of Texans (an estimated 4.9 million) were uninsured in 2022, down from 18% in 2021 (an estimated 5.2 million). Despite this small improvement, Texas continues to rank worst in the nation for the highest percentage of uninsured people by a wide margin–lagging 4.9% behind the next-lowest-ranking states. Notably, this data is only a snapshot of 2022 and does not reflect the large number of Texans who have lost coverage since the Medicaid “unwinding” began earlier this year–about 1.2 million so far.
Brittney Taylor-Ross | November 20, 2023
Blog Posts and Reports
U.S. Census Bureau | Press Release Census Bureau to Host Webinar, Embargo New 2018-2022 American Community Survey, 5-Year Estimates
The U.S. Census Bureau is scheduled to hold a pre-release webinar about the 2018-2022 American Community Survey on Dec. 7, 2023. The webinar will explain how to access data and online resources from the ACS as well as provide tips for comparing geographies and statistics over time. The ACS provides information and local estimates for 40-plus topics, including language spoken at home, education, commuting, employment, mortgage status and rent, and income, poverty and health insurance coverage. Embargo subscribers will have access to these statistics from Tuesday, Dec. 5 at 10:00 am to Thursday, Dec. 7 at 120:01 am. All datasets will be available to the public on Dec. 7 at 10:00 am.
Public Information Office | November 15, 2023
U.S. Census Bureau | Blog Post Announcing Plans for New Experimental Products Designed with the AIAN Community in Mind
The U.S. Census Bureau plans to hold Tribal listening sessions as part of its effort to deliver AIAN communities specialized statistical products that meet their informational needs. The Census Bureau has recognized that many issues are not properly addressed by single surveys, data sources, or the census, and this is especially true for Tribal communities. Rather than simply delineating AIAN as a category within a larger, more generalized statistical product, the Census Bureau announced plans for Tribal listening sessions to better understand the communities’ informational needs and develop specialized statistical products that are designed to support those needs. The Bureau hopes to reengineer its process, practices, and thinking about how federal statistical agencies can meet the diverse informational needs of all communities.
Dr Sallie Ann Keller | November 13, 2023
GAO | Report Federal Workforce: Data Reveal Minor Demographic Changes 2011-2021
Using Census data, the GAO looked at a decade of federal employment trends that reveal minor changes in representation of historically disadvantaged groups. In 2011, 19.2% of the Federal workforce was Black; in 2021, the share of Black Federal employees grew by only .6%, reaching 19.8%. From 2011 to 2021, Hispanic participation in the Federal workforce grew by 1.4% to 10%, yet Hispanics represent 18% of the civilian labor force. Federal workforce participation of people with disabilities, however, doubled from 2011 to 2021 and was about three times that of the representation in the civilian workforce. As the federal government continues to pursue its goal of hiring and promoting a diverse workforce, this data makes clear that it still has a long way to go.
Public Information Office | November 17, 2023
As always, you can find earlier clips here.
November 13, 2023 Census Coalition Clips
National
AP News | News Feeling crowded yet? The US Census Bureau estimates the world’s population has passed 8 billion
The human species has topped 8 billion, with longer lifespans offsetting fewer births, but world population growth continues a long-term trend of slowing down, the U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday. The bureau estimates the global population exceeded the threshold Sept. 26, a precise date the agency said to take with a grain of salt. The United Nations estimated the number was passed 10 months earlier, having declared November 22, 2022, the “Day of 8 Billion,” the Census Bureau pointed out in a statement.
Mead Gruver | November 9, 2023
NBC News | News Over 1 in 4 Americans will be Latino by 2060, census projects
The U.S. Latino population, now about 1 in 5 Americans, is projected to continue increasing through the year 2060, when over 1 in 4 Americans are likely to be Latino, according to U.S. Census Bureau projections released Thursday. Hispanics are now 19.1% of the U.S. population but are projected to make up 26.9% of the population in less than four decades. Meanwhile, the non-Hispanic white population is projected to continue to decline from 58.9% now to 44.9% by 2060.
Suzanne Gamboa | November 9, 2023
The Washington Post | News U.S. population will start decline before 2100, census data show
Before the end of the century, the U.S. population will stop growing for the first time in the country’s history and start to decline, new Census Bureau data show. The bureau’s 2023 National Population Projections estimate that the population will peak at almost 370 million in 2080 before receding to 366 million in 2100, an increase of only 9.7 percent between 2022 and 2100. That is far below the rate the country has grown each decade for most of the nation’s history. The data, released Thursday, are the first such updates since 2017 and the first to reflect the effect of the coronavirus pandemic. They paint a stark picture of how immigration policy could affect the country’s path.
Tara Bahrampour | November 9, 2023
Forbes | News 2023 Poverty Rate By State, Per The Latest Census Data
Poverty in the United States presents a complex mosaic of challenges and disparities. As the latest census data reveals — Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey — poverty rates continue to ebb and flow across the 50 states, each grappling with its unique economic, social, and demographic factors. We analyzed data on poverty rates by state, looking back over the last decade to see how levels of poverty have changed. Bear in mind that 10 years ago, the year 2012 witnessed many American housing markets finally hit rock bottom and — though the Great Recession had technically ended in 2009, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) — the early 2010s were a time of terribly slow recovery. Thus, poverty rates in 2012 tend to be higher than today. However, that is not always the case.
Andrew DePietro | November 9, 2023
States
Texas
New York Times | News What It Means to Be a Texan Is Changing in Surprising Ways
Understanding the reality of Texas matters. With a population of over 30 million, Texas is increasingly shaping the cultural and political direction of the country. Its economy is one of the largest in the world, growing faster than the nation’s as a whole. The state has long been defined by demographic change, particularly its growing Hispanic population. But the nature of those changes, and how profound they have become, has often been misunderstood, even by those who follow the state closely. The New York Times collected years of census data, analyzed migration patterns and traveled to communities across Texas to understand what is happening in the nation’s second most populous state, a place that offers an important window into the future of both national politics and the attempts to deal with questions of identity and diversity.
- David Goodman, Edgar Sandoval and Robert Gebeloff | November 13, 2023
Blog Posts and Reports
U.S. Census Bureau | Press Release U.S. Population Projected to Begin Declining in Second Half of Century
The U.S. population is projected to reach a high of nearly 370 million in 2080 before edging downward to 366 million in 2100. By 2100, the total U.S. resident population is only projected to increase 9.7% from 2022, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau population projections released today. The projections provide possible scenarios of population change for the nation through the end of the century. The 2023 National Population Projections is an update to the last series of projections, published in 2017, to account for the impact of COVID-19 and to reflect the results of the 2020 Census through its inclusion of the Vintage 2022 National Population Estimates as a base. It also extends the population projections to 2100, the first time since 2000 that the Census Bureau projections have stretched this far into the future.
Public Information Office | November 9, 2023
U.S. Census Bureau | Press Release Census Bureau to Hold Virtual Workshop on Advancing Research on Race, Ethnicity and Inequality
The U.S. Census Bureau is scheduled to hold a virtual workshop on Advancing Research on Race, Ethnicity and Inequality Nov. 14-15, 2023. This event will bring together new perspectives on how data resources can be better leveraged to both measure the dimensions of race and ethnicity within the U.S. population and to investigate how systemic inequalities by race/ethnicity can be identified within U.S. society. The two-day event will feature opening remarks by Census Bureau Director, Robert Santos; a keynote address by Meeta Anand, senior program director for Census and Data Equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; and social science research presentations and discussions.
Public Information Office | November 6, 2023
As always, you can find earlier clips here.
November 6, 2023 Census Coalition Clips
National
Vera Institute | News Elections are Warped by Prison Gerrymandering Year After Year
In the vast majority of states, voters will be casting their ballots in legislative maps misshapen—sometimes dramatically—by prison gerrymandering, the practice of counting incarcerated people where they are detained, rather than in their actual homes. This method has been used since the first U.S. census in 1790. While this practice has always been unjust, the explosion of racialized mass incarceration over the past decades has exacerbated its impact. To confront the issue, lawmakers and organizers across the country are slowly chipping away at prison gerrymandering’s wide reach.
Sam McCann | November 6, 2023
States
Connecticut
Source | News Connecticut gained 57,000 residents in 2022, Census data shows
People moved to Connecticut in droves last year giving the state its greatest population gain in many years, new data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows. In 2022, Connecticut experienced a net influx of approximately 57,000 residents due to migration from other states. It marks at least the second straight year when more people moved to Connecticut from other states than vice versa – known in Census-speak as “net domestic migration.”
Taylor Johnston | November 6, 2023
Hawai’i
Honolulu Civil Beat | Op-Ed The Census Shows Hawaii Is Diverse. Now We Need Equality
The latest census figures boosted Hawaii’s claim to fame as the most racial and ethnically diverse state in the United States, with a 76% chance that two people chosen at random would be from different racial groups. The “Detailed Demographic and Housing Characteristics File A” report on the 2020 census figures, which was published this year, provides information on the ethnic composition of the state population of about 1.4 million, which is much more useful and meaningful than the data previously released based on race.
Jonathan Y. Okamura | November 5, 2023
Blog Posts and Reports
U.S. Census Bureau | News Census Bureau to Hold Virtual Workshop on Advancing Research on Race, Ethnicity and Inequality
The U.S. Census Bureau is scheduled to hold a virtual workshop on Advancing Research on Race, Ethnicity and Inequality Nov. 14-15, 2023. This event will bring together new perspectives on how data resources can be better leveraged to both measure the dimensions of race and ethnicity within the U.S. population and to investigate how systemic inequalities by race/ethnicity can be identified within U.S. society.
Public Information Office | November 6, 2023
Rubio Senate Office | Press Release Rubio, Vance Criticize U.S. Census Bureau for Pushing Gender Identity Question
The U.S. Census Bureau asked the Biden Administration for permission to ask questions about the gender identity of respondents aged 15 and above. By adding these questions, the U.S. Census Bureau is pushing a narrative that is harmful to minors and undermines the reality of biological sex. U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and JD Vance (R-OH) sent a letter to the U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Santos requesting that he rescind polarizing and unscientific questions on gender identity.
Office of Senator Marco Rubio (FL) | November 3, 2023
Rice University | Press Release Census director to talk equity, diversity and reaching undercounted communities at Rice Kinder Forum event Nov. 8
Robert Santos, director of the U.S. Census Bureau, will discuss leveraging data to advance equity and diversity, lessons learned from the 2020 census and his plans to reach historically undercounted communities in 2030 at a Rice Kinder Forum event Nov. 8. The talk, which is free and open to the public (RSVPs required), will take place from 7-8:15 p.m. at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1001 Bissonnet St. The event will include a conversation with Kinder Institute for Urban Research Director Ruth López Turley.
Amy McCaifg | November 2, 2023
U.S. Census Bureau | Blog Protecting Your Data, Our Systems and the Public
At the U.S. Census Bureau, protecting your data and privacy is a top priority. As we wrap up the 20th anniversary of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the Census Bureau is proud to participate in this annual campaign to raise awareness of cybersecurity and highlight the role each of us plays in ensuring the data entrusted to us are protected using the best tools and procedures available. Since 2004, Cybersecurity Awareness Month has grown into a collaborative effort between government and industry to enhance cybersecurity awareness, encourage actions by the public to reduce online risk, and generate national and global discussion on cyber threats.
Dr. Ron Jarmin | October 31, 2023
