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.
June 24, 2024 Census Coalition Clips
National
Mirage News | News Govt Revises Race, Ethnicity Data Collection Standards
The latest issue of the peer-reviewed journal Health Equity features a pivotal roundtable discussion titled “Implications and Insights on Federal Revisions to Race and Ethnicity Collection.” This roundtable assembles leading experts to explore newly revised race and ethnicity data collection standards from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), highlighting the significant impact these changes have on policy and practice. The expanded standards now capture historically marginalized communities, who will now be visible in federal data for the first time.
Health Equity Journal | June 21, 2024
State
Pennsylvania
The Washington Post | News ‘Too many old people’: A rural town reckons with population loss
Across rural Pennsylvania, there is a deepening sense of fear about the future as population loss accelerates. The sharp decline has put the state at the forefront of a national discussion on the viability of the small towns that have long been a pillar of American culture. America’s rural population began contracting about a decade ago, according to statistics drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau. Experts who study the phenomena say the shrinking baby boomer population and younger residents having smaller families and moving elsewhere for jobs are fueling the trend.
Tim Craig | June 23, 2024
Blogs and Reports
U.S. Census Bureau | Press Release Data Processing Error for Migration Originating in Connecticut in 2022
After the release of the 2022 American Community Survey (ACS) data products, an error was identified in the Migration/Residence One Year Ago data among respondents who reported moving within the state of Connecticut or from the state of Connecticut to another state or Puerto Rico. Due to the change of county boundaries in Connecticut, respondents reporting a Connecticut county as their residence one year ago were systematically excluded from the donor pool for allocating missing or inconsistent data. This processing error resulted in a decreased share of allocated migration geographies originating in Connecticut. The error was present in 2022 1-year and 2018-2022 5-year data products and Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) files.
U.S. Census Bureau | June 20, 2024
U.S. Census Bureau | Press Release Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2021
Most U.S. households had at least one type of computer (95%) and had a broadband internet subscription (90%) in 2021, an increase from 2018 (92% and 85%, respectively). This is according to a new report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. The report, Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2021, examines trends in computer use and internet access at the national, state and county levels based on statistics from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS).
Lewis Liu | June 18, 2024
June 17, 2024 Census Coalition Clips
National
The Siliconeer | News Key To Curing Health Disparities – Disaggregated Data
Disaggregated data has the potential to significantly address health care inequities by providing insights into previously overlooked diverse populations. The standards for federal data collection, unchanged since 1997, finally saw a significant update on March 28. In a media briefing on May 17, hosted by Ethnic Media Services, a panel of experts share the new changes being made and share personal stories of how insufficient data collection tactics affected them. Most notably, the reclassification that allows Middle Easterners and North Africans to be recognized as a distinct racial category. The new standards, which will be phased in over the course of five years, require federal agencies to use a single combined question for race and ethnicity, allowing respondents to select multiple identification options. This granular data is said to aid in the allocation of federal funds and could influence redistricting efforts.
Janam Gupta | June 15, 2024
JDSUPRA | News Census Bureau to Test New Questions on Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity
The U.S. Census Bureau intends to test new questions that will be used for survey respondents to provide information on their sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). A formal request to test these questions was published in the Federal Register on April 29, 2024. If approved by the Office of Management and Budget, these test questions will be incorporated into the American Community Survey. The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) is sent to 3.5 million addresses in the United States each year. It includes an extensive set of questions regarding household demographics, income, housing, education, and employment. Responses to the ACS are used for many purposes, including the creation of statistical tables used in availability analyses in affirmative action plans.
Bill Osterndorf | June 12, 2024
AP | News Report: Differences between gay and straight spouses disappear after legalization of gay marriage
Same-sex spouses were typically younger, had more education and were more likely to be employed than those in opposite-sex marriages, although many of those differences disappeared after the legalization of gay marriage in 2015, according to a new report released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Almost 1.5 million people lived with a same-sex spouse in the U.S. in 2022, double what it was in the year before gay marriage was legalized, according to the bureau’s American Community Survey. A 2015 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court made same-sex marriages legal in all 50 states. In the year before that ruling, same-sex marriages had been legalized in just over a third of states through legislation and lower court rulings.
Mike Schneider | June 11, 2024
Education Next | News New U.S. Census Bureau Data Confirm Growth in Homeschooling Amid Pandemic
The United States Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, an online survey designed to measure social and economic trends among U.S. households since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, offers new insight on educational trends across the country. In particular, recent data from the survey provide information on homeschool participation, its growth during the pandemic, and current homeschool estimates nationally and by state. Survey data collected from September of 2022 through August of 2023 indicate that nearly 6 percent of all school-aged children nationwide were reported as homeschooled during the 2022–23 school year. This compares to 10 percent of students in private schools and 84 percent in public schools. With pre-pandemic estimates of the national homeschool population representing just 2.8 percent of students in 2019, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the Pulse figures signify growing interest in alternative schooling models.
Genevieve Smith, Angela R. Watson | June 10, 2024
State
Oklahoma
PBS News Hour | News When the storm came, alerts came only in English. This team is trying to change that
As the winds howled and sirens blared, the local television meteorologist delivered urgent instructions. A massive EF-5 tornado appeared to be spinning toward the Oklahoma City metro. Take shelter. Get underground. The critical warnings, though, came only in English. In the last decade, Hispanic and Latinx communities have grown considerably in the southeastern United States, where severe weather can be sudden and volatile. Some counties in this region nearly tripled their Hispanic and Latinx populations since 2010. The foreign-born population has increased by 21 percent in Arkansas, 34 percent in Kentucky, 18 percent in Missouri and 27 percent in Tennessee in the same time period, according to NOAA’s analysis of Census data.
Adam Kemp | June 12, 2024
Blogs and Reports
Cherokee One Feather | Report 2023 EBCI Census results are here
Dinilawigi (Tribal Council) heard the results of the EBCI (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians 2023 census at the Wednesday, June 5 Reports to Council. Anita Lossiah, director of EBCI Public Health and Human Services, presented the results. Lossiah, who oversaw the project, told council she was very happy with the participation rate they saw. Of the 11,513 enrolled adults, 6,437 members competed the census for a 56 percent participation rate. The census report included participants’ townships, but data sets did not distinguish between residence and voting district.
Mattilynn Sneed | June 17, 2024
Scientific Data | Report An experienced racial-ethnic diversity dataset in the United States using human mobility data
Despite the importance of measuring racial-ethnic segregation and diversity in the United States, current measurements are largely based on the Census and, thus, only reflect segregation and diversity as understood through residential location. This leaves out the social contexts experienced throughout the course of the day during work, leisure, errands, and other activities. The National Experienced Racial-ethnic Diversity (NERD) dataset provides estimates of diversity for the entire United States at the census tract level based on the range of place and times when people have the opportunity to come into contact with one another.
Wenfei Xu, Zhuojun Wang, Nada Attia, Youssef Attia, Yucheng Zhang & Haotian Zong | June 17, 2024
U.S. Census Bureau | Press Release Census Bureau to Embargo New Population Estimates by Age, Sex, Race and Hispanic Origin
The U.S. Census Bureau will offer a 2-day embargo period for qualified media to view Vintage 2023 Population Estimates for the nation, states and counties by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin, and for Puerto Rico and its municipios by age and sex. Age, sex, race and Hispanic origin estimates will also be available for metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas for the first time.
Jewel Jordan | June 11, 2024
Alex Padilla | Press Release Padilla Urges HHS to Fully Implement MENA Community Inclusion Act
Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), as well as Representatives Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.-06) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.-12), applauded the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) efforts to update the standards for race and ethnicity data collection and use. Additionally, they urged Secretary Xavier Becerra to fully implement their Health Equity and Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Community Inclusion Act. The lawmakers expressed appreciation for the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) newly revised data standards, which added a Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) category.
Press Office | June 10, 2024
June 10, 2024 Census Coalition Clips
National
The New Yorker | News The Immigration Story Nobody Is Talking About
Last week, President Joe Biden announced a crackdown on migrants trying to cross the southern border. The responses from immigrants’-rights groups, civil-rights groups, and some Democratic politicians were instantaneous. Senator Alex Padilla, of California, said that the new policy—which empowers border agents to quickly deport people who cross between ports of entry, by drastically restricting their ability to claim asylum—“undermined American values and abandoned our nation’s obligations to provide people fleeing persecution, violence, and authoritarianism with an opportunity to seek refuge in the U.S.”
John Cassidy | June 10, 2024
WSJM | News Who makes up the LGBTQ+ community? A look at the growing population
The LGBTQ+ community is growing, with an increasing number of people openly identifying as something other than heterosexual or cisgender, according to data reviewed by ABC News. Despite this, official data on the demographics under the LGBTQ+ umbrella is lacking. In 2020, for the first time, the Census gave respondents an option to identify a relationship as same-sex. However, the Census has since begun to include sexual orientation and gender identity in recent Household Pulse Surveys about social and economic trends. The current data, however, shows this is a small but expanding mosaic of identities, cultures, and backgrounds.
ABC | June 8, 2024
AJMC | News Enhancing Health Equity: The Importance of LGBTQ+ Data Collection in Health Care
In part 1 of a 3-part feature series on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning (LGBTQ)+ health care, Mandi Pratt-Chapman, PhD, clinical researcher, GW Cancer Center, discussed the need to capture more sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data in health care systems. She argued that diversifying research is important not only for improving clinicians’ understandings of their LGBTQ+ patients but also for identifying the needs of the community and improving care delivery in, for example, cancer screening guidelines.
Kyle Munz | June 7, 2024
AP News The Census Bureau failed to adequately monitor advertising contract for 2020 census, watchdog says
The U.S. Census Bureau didn’t properly administer or monitor contract orders worth hundreds of millions of dollars dealing with advertising to promote participation in the 2020 census, possibly wasting taxpayers’ dollars, according to the Office of Inspector General. Bureau contracting officers failed to make sure standards were followed to measure the performance of a contractor and didn’t receive supporting documentation for paid media invoices totaling $363 million, according to an audit report released last month by the watchdog agency.
Mike Schnieder | June 6, 2024
ICMGLT | News Our revised race standards still fall short for Indigenous Americans
This March, the White House Office of Management and Budget published new standards for race and ethnicity data to help policymakers and researchers collect more accurate statistics on underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. The largest changes create a new category for individuals of Middle Eastern and North African descent, and combine the confusing separate questions for “race” and Latino or Hispanic “ethnicity.” These changes are a positive development, but they don’t go far enough to solve the most significant data issues facing another group: American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Admin | June 6, 2024
Brookings Institute | News Census shows big city population improvements, countering predictions of the ‘urban doom loop’
Contrary to the “urban doom loop” scenario, recently released census statistics show that most big U.S. cities, with populations over 250,000, are now doing much better demographically than they were during the peak pandemic year of 2020–2021. In each of the past two years, fewer of these 91 big U.S. cities showed population declines, an improvement from 2020–2021 when more than half of them (56) had falling populations. In the most recent year’s census statistics (2022–2023), two thirds of these big cities showed demographic improvements—through greater population gains, fewer losses, or shifts from losses to gains—compared with 2020–2021. San Francisco, Boston, Minneapolis, and Detroit were among the cities experiencing new gains in 2022–2023.
William H. Frey | June 6, 2024
States
California
The Bay Area Reporter | News Guest Opinion: LGBTQI+ persons need representation in official statistics
It’s no secret that our community is regularly marginalized, stigmatized, and victimized. But what we know from lived experience is mostly missing from official statistics — and that makes it harder to demand change. The good news is, there may soon be a simple way you can be heard and counted.cWhen government data collections ask demographic questions — such as age, race, and ethnicity — that data is heavily protected by law, and is not traceable to you as an individual. When demographic factors are added up, it helps governments set policies and funding to improve public well-being and reduce discrimination. Sexual orientation and gender identity are not routinely asked in these collections. As a result, it’s incredibly difficult to quantify the needs in our communities and see if policies meant for straight and cisgender populations may disadvantage us.
Nancy Bated | June 5, 2024
Blogs Posts and Reports
U.S. Census Bureau | Blog Exploring Two “First Look” Economic Datasets
The U.S. Census Bureau recently unveiled “First Look” findings from two significant economic surveys — the 2022 Economic Census and the 2023 Annual Business Survey (ABS). The preliminary findings show a variety of aggregate statistics from the number of businesses in 19 sectors to the profitability of employer firms by the race of owners. Both the 2022 Economic Census and the 2023 ABS report 2022 data. Final data from the Annual Business Survey are scheduled to be released later this year and the next data release from the Economic Census will be in early 2025.
Adan Grundy | June 6, 2024
June 3, 2024 Census Coalition Clips
National
LatinoUSA.org | News Robert Santos Counts the Future
Santos is no stranger to the federal agency. Before his nomination and confirmation, Santos warned that former President Donald Trump’s interference of the Census count would result in one of the most flawed Census counts in U.S. history. Trump wanted to add a citizenship question to the census, but after several lawsuits the citizenship question did not end up on the 2020 Census. However, the damage was already done and the trust gap in communities across the country appeared to increase. Earlier this year, the Census Bureau announced that U.S. Latinos, Black Americans and Native Americans were undercounted and that white people and Asians were overcounted. Census counts are important because they help determine congressional representation and how billions of federal dollars are distributed.
Reynaldo Leaños Jr. | May 31, 2024
India Currents | News Unequal Lives: Hidden Health Crisis Revealed in Disaggregated Data
Aggregated data on health, income, and social determinants presents a misleading view of Asian American communities, perpetuating the damaging model minority myth. Asian Americans are perceived as healthy, affluent, and academically successful. This oversimplification masks the genuine challenges experienced by many Asian American subgroups, rendering them invisible in health discussions and depriving them of essential resources. Disaggregating data is a critical step in this process, providing a clearer, more detailed picture of health outcomes across different populations. For the first time since 1997, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) expanded its race and ethnicity standards to capture historically excluded communities who will now be visible in federal data collection.
Mona Shah | May 30, 2024
State
Alaska
Alaska Public Media | News Protecting Private Data: The Impact of the U.S. Census on Rural Alaska
In 2020, The U.S. Census started in Toksook Bay, a rural village along the Southwest Coast of Alaska. The remoteness of this area makes it one of the most difficult to count. A new algorithm ensures not only more accurate numbers, but better security when it comes to protecting personal data. In partnership with @novapbs, we dive into how differential privacy works, and what’s at stake for small communities if the data isn’t accurate.
Matthew Faubion | May 30, 2024
Colorado
The Gazette | News Fountain falling? City leaders say census data is wrong about declining population
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, between the 2000 and 2010 censuses, the “big little town” 10 miles south of Colorado Springs increased by more than 70%. Fountain’s population gained another 15.3% over the following decade, to flirt with the 30,000 mark and earn headlines as the fastest-growing city in the state. We’ll get to why the data likely doesn’t accurately reflect what’s happening on the ground, in Fountain and other cities. First, a sketch of the bigger picture takeaway no one is disputing: Colorado’s population is still growing, but at a fraction of the year-over-year rate it did before COVID-19.
Stephanie Earls | June 2, 2024
Blog Posts and Reports
U.S. Census Bureau | Blog How Many Young and Older Adults Lived Alone?
Almost 1 in 10 young adults ages 18-34 and nearly 3 in 10 adults 65 or older lived alone in 2022, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report. In 1960, 52% of 18- to 24-year-old men were living in their parents’ home, compared to 35% of women in that age range (Figure 3). By 2022, however, those percentages had increased to 57% and 55%, respectively. The large increase in the share of women living with their parents is at least partially attributable to the increase in women enrolled in college and marrying later. A lower percentage of men and women ages 25 to 34 lived in their parents’ home although, as was the case with younger adults, the rates grew from 1960 to 2022.
Paul Hemez and Chanell Washington | May 30, 2024
U.S. Census Bureau | Press Release Census Bureau Releases New Estimates on Families and Living Arrangements
The U.S. Census Bureau today released estimates showing that married-couple households made up 47% of all households in 2022, down from 71% in 1970. Estimates from the America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2022 report also show that about 80 million U.S. households in 2019 were family households. Of those family households, 58 million were married-couple households, about 6 million were a male householder with no spouse present, and 15 million were a female householder with no spouse present.
Kristina Barrett | May 30, 2024
