Random Samplings

Written by: Wan He

China and India sit next to each other on the Asian continent, sharing a thousand-mile long border. The Silk Road connected these two countries more than 2,000 years ago, allowing exchanges not only in trade but in religion and culture as well.

However, despite their geographical proximity, the health status of their older populations appear to be poles apart. Results from the Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) consistently placed China and India at opposite ends of the spectrum among the six countries included – China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa.

Here are some examples: fewer than 4 percent of older Chinese women reported being current tobacco users, while 32 percent of Indian women did. About 74 percent of the oldest Chinese (70 and older) fell in the category of the least disability and best functioning, compared with only 26 percent of the oldest Indians. And a mere 1 percent of the older Chinese reported being diagnosed with depression compared with 14 percent of older Indians.

So, the question becomes: Why are older Chinese more likely to report being healthy and happy but Indians  less so? These findings may very well be true differences in health levels between the two populations, but there could also be many other factors that come into play. Could the results also be a reflection of their cultural differences; that is, differences in how the two populations respond to the same questions? Do the responses and outcomes reflect differences in health care systems and health care policies? These and many other intriguing questions can be further investigated with more in-depth analysis, using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from future waves of SAGE.

If you are interested in learning more about the differences in health and health care between China and India or among other SAGE countries, please see the Census Bureau’s newly released report Shades of Gray: A Cross-Country Study of Health and Well-Being of the Older Populations in SAGE Countries, 2007-2010, commissioned by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health.

Written by: Mark Muenchrath

You or someone in your family may have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, or hypertension. About one in three adults in the United States has this condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with the prevalence rising with age.

Hypertension is a disease of long duration and generally slow progression, and is a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, and kidney disease.  Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally, representing about 30 percent of all deaths worldwide and an even higher share in middle- and low-income countries, according to the World Health Organization.  Hypertension negatively affects older people’s state of health and well-being throughout the world but is preventable and treatable.

Data from the Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) show hypertension to be by far one of the most common health conditions for those age 50 and older in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa (see Figure). It was the number one chronic condition reported by 50- to 69-year-olds in all countries except India, where it was the second-most common. Among people 70 and older, hypertension was the leading chronic condition in China, Russia, and South Africa. In Russia, almost half of the 50- to 69-year-olds and nearly two-thirds of the 70-and-older population reported this condition.

Hypertension also had a negative effect on other aspects of the health of older people in SAGE countries. For instance, older people with hypertension in most SAGE countries were more likely to be depressed than those without this chronic condition. In addition, they were more likely to have received outpatient care from a doctor in the 12 months before the survey.

If you are interested in learning more about hypertension and other chronic conditions among the older population in low- and middle-income SAGE countries, please see the Census Bureau’s newly released report Shades of Gray: A Cross-Country Study of Health and Well-Being of the Older Populations in SAGE Countries, 2007-2010, commissioned by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health.

Written By: Rose M. Kreider

Marriages among couples of different races or ethnicities have increased from about 8 percent in 2000 to 10 percent in 2010 for householders and their spouses. But what are the most common types of these relationships? If we define intermarriage as either spouses of different races, or couples that include one Hispanic spouse and one non-Hispanic spouse, the most common type is Hispanic/non-Hispanic marriage. Forty-five percent of intermarried couple households in 2010 contained Hispanic/non-Hispanic couples.

The next most common group was those in which one of the spouses reported more than one race for themselves and the other spouse reported only one race (16 percent).  The third and fourth most common interracial or interethnic combinations were couples with one white non-Hispanic spouse and one Asian non-Hispanic spouse, at 14 percent, followed by couples with one white non-Hispanic spouse and one black non-Hispanic spouse at 8 percent.

We can also look at the percent of people in a particular racial or ethnic group that is married to someone who is not in the same group.

It is easy to see that race groups that are relatively smaller in the U.S. have higher proportions of people married to someone of a different group. For example, 59 percent of American Indian and Alaskan Native women were intermarried, as were 42 percent of Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander women and 22 percent of Asian women. However, just 4 percent of white non-Hispanic women were married to someone who is a different race or is Hispanic. Similarly, 6 percent of black women were married to a spouse of another race or ethnicity.  Nearly 1 in 5 Hispanic women were married to a non-Hispanic man (19 percent).

For more details on the geographic distribution of interracial and interethnic couple households in 2010, and a profile of interracial opposite-sex and same-sex partner households, see the Households and Families: 2010 brief, and the webinar that accompanies the release.

Guest blog post by Deputy Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank

Census Bureau Director Robert Groves has been an exceptional and dedicated leader. Over the past several years, Dr. Groves has done outstanding work to transform and modernize the Census Bureau. So our announcement today is bittersweet: Dr. Groves is resigning as Director of the Census Bureau in August to become the provost of Georgetown University. This is a significant and highly deserved honor for him – and a major capstone to his notable academic career.

Dr. Groves has led the Census Bureau for almost three years. During that time, his remarkable leadership of the 2010 Census resulted in a historic, successful operation that was completed on time and $1.9 billion under budget. Dr. Groves helped shape a strategy for planning a more cost-efficient 2020 Census and launched an employee-led operational efficiency program that saved millions of additional taxpayer dollars. He also led a formal reorganization of the Census Bureau, reestablishing the research directorate to spur technical innovation. With the implementation of a corporate hiring and job rotation program, Dr. Groves has worked to expand the breadth of skills among Census staff to effectively lead the Bureau into the 21^st century.

Further, in a time of tight budgets, Dr. Groves’ management has increased the efficiency of the Census Bureau.  His leadership is a prime example of this Administration’s commitment to do more with less and be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. Most importantly, his efforts have greatly improved the quality of data that Census collects, which is crucial for researchers, service providers, and policymakers around the country – something I can personally attest to as a frequent consumer of Census data. By bringing quantitative management techniques to the oversight of data collection, Dr. Groves has helped provide high-quality information about the nation’s people and economy.

I have had the privilege of working closely with Bob during his tenure here, and have been consistently impressed by his vision and creativity. His leadership is a significant loss for the Department, but his contributions will not be soon forgotten. We are all grateful for his service to the Commerce Department, to this Administration and to the American people, and we wish him the best of luck in his exciting new role.

Written by: Alexa Kennedy Jones-Puthoff

Every year, except in the year after a decennial census is conducted, the Census Bureau releases population estimates for the nation’s more than 3,000 counties and equivalents, along with Puerto Rico’s municipios. Yesterday, we published the first such estimates since the 2010 Census and they show us the first measure of how much each county has grown since Census Day ─ April 1, 2010.

These estimates pertain to July 1, 2011, and provide evidence that different patterns of growth are emerging than what we witnessed during the last decade.

Traditionally, when we think of people packing up their belongings and moving out of state, we often picture them seeking out the sun and surf of Florida.

If we look at the counties with the highest rates of growth during the 15 months after the 2010 Census, we see that several in the top 10 were located far outside what many would consider the Sun Belt, including one in North Dakota, one in Iowa, and one in Washington state. Two more are in the New Orleans vicinity, providing further evidence that this area continues to rebound from 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

Expanding the list out to the top 50 shows a more traditional pattern, with 38 of the fastest-growing counties over the period located in the South. That said, three of the top 50 are in North Dakota, which had one of the slower rates of growth among all states between the 2000 and 2010 censuses. That gave North Dakota more counties in the top 50 than Florida (which had only one), as many as North Carolina, and more than every state except for Texas, Georgia and Virginia. Furthermore, another two counties are in neighboring South Dakota.

The counties among the 10 with the highest numeric growth are exclusively in the Sun Belt, however, with four each in Texas and Southern California, and the remaining two in Arizona and Florida, respectively. Harris, Texas, home to Houston, led the way, gaining more than 88,000 residents over the period.

These estimates are the first for counties based on the 2010 Census. The Census Bureau uses births, deaths, administrative records and survey data to develop them. Released along with the county numbers were comparable estimates for metropolitan and micropolitan areas. In the coming months, we will publish estimates of the total population of incorporated places, as well as national, state and county population estimates by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin.