Random Samplings

What About the 90+?

Written by: Wan He, Mark Muenchrath, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau

Is your grandmother or great-grandmother 90 or older, widowed, living in a nursing home, and experiencing one or more disabilities? If so, she is not alone. In 2006-2008, there were 1.3 million women age 90 and older in the United States, representing three-fourths of the total 90-and-older population. Among the 90-plus women, eight out of 10 were widowed, four out of 10 lived alone, a quarter lived in a nursing home, and the vast majority had at least one disability.

People 90 and older nearly tripled from 720,000 in 1980 to almost 2 million in 2010 and are projected to quadruple by 2050. Their share among the older population (65 and older) grew from 2.8 percent in 1980 to 4.7 percent in 2010 and is projected to reach about 10 percent in 2050. Can you imagine a society, 40 years from now, where 20 percent of the total population will be a person age 65 and older and one in 10 of them is someone 90 or older?

The implications for the family and our society of this growing population are likely to be significant. The older people get the more likely they are to be limited by disabilities, which may make fully taking care of themselves difficult.

An older person’s likelihood of living in a nursing facility increases sharply with age. While only 1 percent of people in their upper 60s and 3 percent in their upper 70s were in nursing homes, the proportion rose to 20 percent for those in their lower 90s, more than 30 percent for people in their upper 90s, and nearly 40 percent for centenarians. A quarter of the 90-plus women lived in a nursing home, compared with about 15 percent of the 90-plus men.

Read the report....

Read the press release...

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Older Women Less Likely to Live Alone Now Than A Generation Ago

Written By: Rose Kreider, U.S. Census Bureau

In general, the percent of all households that contain just one person has risen over the last half of the 20th century and into the 21st century. In 1960, 13 percent of all households contained one person, while in 2011, this had risen to 28 percent. While the percentage may not differ significantly from one year to the next, the overall trend has been an upward one. That’s why the decline in one-person households of 0.8 percentage points from 2008 to 2010 stands out.

Since this time period falls roughly during the recent recession, it is tempting to think the recession may have affected the likelihood of adults living alone. However, looking at the percentage of one-person households and years of recession, it doesn’t look like it is necessarily sensitive to recessions, since following each of the three recessions, the year prior did not differ statistically from the year after. (See Figure 1).

One reason we did not see a drop in one-person households following many recessions may be that a substantial proportion of such households contained someone who was 65 or older. People this age are more likely to be retired, and so would be less affected by recession-related job losses. However, the percentage of one-person households headed by someone 65 and older declined from 46 percent in 1971 to 35 percent in 2011.

Some interesting changes in the likelihood of living alone have happened over the last 40 years for men and women age 65 and older. In general, the percentage of men living alone increased, while the percentage of women living alone increased from 1971 to 1991, and then decreased.

The increase for older men was affected by at least two factors: rising life expectancy (from 67 years in 1971 to 75 years in 2007) and a higher percentage who are divorced. 

The increase in life expectancy for men is likely also connected to the decrease in living alone for older women.  Since these older women’s husbands were living longer, the proportion of the women who were widowed decreased, and the proportion married and living with their spouse increased from 1971 to 2011. 

These data come from The Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey, which was conducted in February, March and April of 2011 for a nationwide sample of about 100,000 addresses. Statistics from surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling error. For more information on the source of the data and accuracy of the estimates, including standard errors and confidence intervals, see Appendix G at <http://www.census.gov/apsd/techdoc/cps/cpsmar11.pdf>.

Read the press release.

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How small errors can have a big impact on small populations

When you checked the boxes on your census form, you probably did not pay much attention to the form design. But it is something the Census Bureau researches and gives a lot of attention. Something as simple as using vertical instead of horizontal boxes can have a big impact on how you read the form and the data we gather.

If one person’s eye misreads the form and checks the wrong box, it may not change percentages of statistics very much. But if even 1 percent of a large population checks the wrong box on a question, it could lead to an inaccurate picture of a smaller population.

For example, you’ll see in the video below that if you have 1,000 circles and 100,000 squares and just one-percent of the squares are counted as circles, then that’s one thousand squares now listed as circles. This mismarking would result in responses that double the amount of circles.

A similar data capture error affected the 2010 Census results for same-sex couple households. On the form used by census takers, the boxes for sex were placed vertically, and the wrong gender box was marked for a small percentage of opposite-sex partners, artificially increasing the percentage of same-sex couple households.

When we discovered this inconsistency in the responses, we developed a better set of estimates to provide a more accurate measure of same-sex married and unmarried partner households. These estimates are now available.

At the Census Bureau, we strive to eliminate these kinds of errors and modify our survey questionnaires to gather the best possible data on the nation’s people, places and economy.

This brief video illustrates how a small error in a large population can create a large error in a smaller related population, such as the same-sex couple population.

 

For more information, visit our online press kit.

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Households Doubling Up

Written by: David Johnson, US Census Bureau

In coping with economic challenges over the past few years, many of us have combined households with other family members or individuals. These “doubled-up” households are defined as those that include at least one “additional” adult – in other words, a person 18 or older who is not enrolled in school and is not the householder, spouse or cohabiting partner of the householder.

The Census Bureau reported today that the number and share of doubled-up households and adults sharing households across the country increased over the course of the recession, which began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. In spring 2007, there were 19.7 million doubled-up households, amounting to 17.0 percent of all households. Four years later, in spring 2011, the number of such households had climbed to 21.8 million, or 18.3 percent.

All in all, 61.7 million adults, or 27.7 percent, were doubled-up in 2007, rising to 69.2 million, or 30.0 percent, in 2011.

Young adults were especially hard-hit, with 5.9 million people ages 25 to 34 living in their parents’ household in 2011, up from 4.7 million before the recession. That left 14.2 percent of young adults living in their parents’ households in March 2011, up more than two percentage points over the period.

These young adults who lived with their parents had an official poverty rate of only 8.4 percent, since the income of their entire family is compared with the poverty threshold. If their poverty status were determined by their own income, 45.3 percent would have had income falling below the poverty threshold for a single person under age 65.

Each year, the Census Bureau asks people in roughly 78,000 households about their income in the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to our Current Population Survey. If you are one of them, remember that your answer is very important and kept in strict confidence. This information helps our nation address the many problems of poverty and find solutions.

To learn more about poverty at the local level, you can consult results from the American Community Survey, which has statistics from counties, cities and smaller areas.

To access all of our poverty data, visit our website.

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Visualizing Income and Poverty Estimates

Written by: Wesley Basel and KaNin Reese, US Census Bureau

Recently the U.S. Census Bureau added interactive maps to the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates program's (SAIPE) website. This web-based interactive tool allows users to select, map, and display estimates of poverty by state, county and school district, and median household income by state and county.

The SAIPE program is the only source of poverty estimates for every county and school district based on the most recently available year of survey and auxiliary data. The school district poverty estimates are used by the U.S. Department of Education in the formula for allocating Title I funds, as directed by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Currently $14 billion are allocated to school districts for Title I purposes.

COUNTY MAP: United States

The default display when you first click on the SAIPE interactive map link is state-level poverty for all people. To display the county map, choose counties in the first dropdown on the upper left, then press the Go button.

In addition to the poverty estimate for all ages, the user may also select percent in poverty for under age 18 or ages 5-17 in families. One can also view the county-level data for median household income.

To see more detail on the interactive map, you can double-click to zoom in. There are also zoom controls below the map pane.  This snapshot emphasizes the ability to concentrate on a specific geographic area. In this case, the range of median household income in the St. Louis area is the focus. Note that when one hovers over an individual area, a pop-up balloon displays the name and estimates value for that specific area. Also the table of estimates displayed below the map pane is linked to the area being highlighted.

MULTIPLE STATE COUNTY MAP: St. Louis Metropolitan Area

The final snapshot depicts school district poverty estimates for children age 5 to 17 in families, which can be viewed for each individual state. In the drop-downs at the top of the map pane, select “Unified and Elementary Districts” from the left drop down, and then Texas (for e.g.) from the right. The zoom feature allows you to focus on a detailed portion of the state and the hover feature allows you to view poverty estimates from one school district to another, as well as displaying the name to help one locate a specific district.

Note also you can select different backgrounds for the map from the dropdown box at the lower right of the map pane. You can have a blank background to present a clearer picture of the poverty differences in the area, or you can display street view as shown below, to assist in placing the district boundaries in the context of streets and cities in the area.

SCHOOL DISTRICT MAP: Houston Independent School District, Texas

The SAIPE interactive mapping tool was released in May 2011 and features estimates from 2009. More options for downloading the 2009 SAIPE estimates are also available. SAIPE estimates for 2010 are planned for release in December 2011.

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How Long Do Marriages Last?

Written by: Diana Elliott, US Census Bureau

Many Americans stay married and have long marriages. Did you know that the median duration of American women's first marriages in 2009 was 20.8 years? Even when American women remarry, the median duration of their second marriages in 2009 was 14.5 years.

A new Census Bureau report titled Marital Events of Americans: 2009 examines marriage, divorce and widowhood in America. This report is the first of its kind to describe the detailed characteristics of Americans’ marital events using the American Community Survey. Because of the large sample size and geographic coverage of this survey, this report looks at comparisons of marital events among small groups and across the 50 states.

Women in the mid and southern parts of the U.S. were among those with the longest first marriages in 2009. Twenty-seven states had median durations of marriages significantly longer than the U.S. median of 20.8 years. Women in both eastern and western states were among those with shorter first marriages in 2009. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia had median durations of first marriages significantly shorter than the U.S. median.

Thirteen states had longer second marriages in 2009 than the U.S. median of 14.5 years. Seven of the states with significantly longer marriages were in the South (Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas). Twelve states and the District of Columbia had shorter second marriages than the U.S. median in 2009.

Why do women in some states have longer first and second marriages than other states? As discussed in this new report, marriages tend to happen at younger ages in states with longer marriages. If couples marry when they are younger and stay married, they will celebrate more anniversaries together.

If you are interested in such facts and figures about marriage in America, the Marital Events of Americans: 2009 report has much more to offer. Academics, students, the media, and the interested public will discover how the demographics about marriage, divorce and widowhood in this report provide considerable insight into family life in America today.

Read the press release.

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“The Most Important 20 Minutes of Your Day”

Written by: Lynda Laughlin

A national nonprofit group, The Children’s Reading Foundation, calls the time parents devote daily to reading to their young children “the most important 20 minutes of your day.” When parents read to their children, it is commonly believed they not only have the opportunity to positively interact with them but also to foster strong, lifelong reading practices.

Findings from the Survey of Income and Program Participation show that in 2009, half of children 1 to 5 years old were read to seven or more times a week by a family member. While frequency of reading interactions is still more common among families above poverty, reading interactions among low-income families have increased over the last 10 years.

In 1998, 37 percent of 1- to 2-year-olds who were below poverty were read to by a family member seven or more times a week. By 2009, the percent increased to 45 percent. Parental reading interactions also increased over time for 3- to 5-year-olds. In 2009, 40 percent were read to seven or more times a week by a family member, an increase from 34 percent in 1998. Most of the increase since 1998 occurred by 2000 and has remained between 45 and 40 percent for both age groups.

On the other hand, more than half of children 1 to 5 years old (54 percent) who were living at or above the poverty line were read to seven or more times per week. The frequency of parental reading interactions among 1- to 2-year-olds in 2009 was 56 percent, not statistically different from 1998. Patterns of reading interactions for 3- to 5-year-olds increased from 50 percent in 1998 to 53 percent in 2004 before settling around 52 percent in 2009.

Additional indicators of child well-being, such as the frequency of parents praising their children or eating meals with them, participation in extracurricular activities, and academic experience, are available in a series of detailed tables released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Read the press release.

Census Bureau data on children.

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More Than a Century of Tracking our Children

Written by: Rose Kreider, US Census Bureau

Much of what we can observe today about who children live with is a function of how the American family has changed over time.

Statistics from the Census Bureau are invaluable for helping us understand how children’s living arrangements have evolved. Of particular interest is what we can observe today compared with what we saw in the late 19th century, giving us a timeline of 100-plus years.

From generation to generation, we see small but important changes. In 1880, the proportion of children who lived without a parent was 6 percent. By 1970, that had dropped to just 3 percent. Notably, those who lived with their mother, with no father present, went up over the same period, from 8 percent to 11 percent.

Perhaps of even greater interest, and certainly more current to our own reference point, is the shift we see that took place between 1970 and 1990. In that span of 20 years, the proportion of children living with their mother but without their father doubled from 11 percent to 22 percent.

This time span also corresponds to sharp increases in births to unmarried women, from 11 percent of all births in 1970 to 28 percent in 1990, according to birth data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Additionally, the percent of children living with two parents declined from 85 percent in 1970 to 73 percent in 1990.

Since 1990, children’s living arrangements have changed at much slower rates. The proportion of children living with two parents declined less between 1991 and 2009 (4 percentage points) than it had between 1970 and 1990 (12 percentage points).

And children living with their mother without their father present increased 3 percentage points from 1991 to 2009, compared with an 11 percentage point increase between 1970 and 1990.

These figures come from the report Living Arrangements of Children: 2009, which examines the diversity of situations in which children live in the United States, describing extended family households with relatives and nonrelatives.

Slow or fast, the family situation in which children live continues to change. Having historical data allows us to venture outside of our current vantage point and view the accumulation of change over time. It gives us the context to better understand who we are by showing us where we came from.

Read the press release.

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How Many Trips Do We Take Down the Aisle?

Written by: Rose Kreider, Family Demographer, US Census Bureau Fertility & Family Statistics Branch

Most of us take only one trip down the aisle. Among all currently married couples in 2009, 72 percent were made up of a man and woman who were each in their first marriage. Looking only at recently married couples, which gives us an idea of current patterns, 65 percent of couples who married during 2008 were in their first marriage.

At the other end of the spectrum, a small percentage, just 1 percent, of currently married couples consisted of a husband and wife who had both been married three or more times. Another 6 percent of currently married couples included one spouse who was in at least their third marriage. Between these extremes, 22 percent of currently married couples included at least one spouse who was in their second marriage.

Couples who got married during 2008 looked similar, with 25 percent including at least one spouse who was in their second marriage and a slightly higher 9 percent including one spouse in their third or higher order marriage.

More detail about how many times adults have married and other information on the marital history of Americans is available in a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau titled Number, Timing and Duration of Marriages and Divorces: 2009.

Read the press release.

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The World at Your Fingertips

Written by: Ian O'Brien, Branch Chief - Statistical Compendia Branch, Administrative and Customer Services Division

Did you know that Raleigh, N.C., was the fastest-growing large metro area in the last decade?  (View table 21). That only about 5 percent of us take public transportation to work? (View table 1099). Well, thanks to the Statistical Abstract, now you know.

Perennially the federal government’s best-selling publication, the Statistical Abstract has been published yearly since 1878. The 2011 edition, the 130th in the series, has more than 1,400 tables ─ including 65 new ones ─ from sources both government and private.

Think of a key factor in your life and chances are you will find information on it in the Statistical Abstract: health, education, crime, agriculture ─ no matter. If you need a stat, this is the place to turn.

The Abstract provides copious amounts of data on topics that have been in the news ─ mining fatalities, offshore oil drilling, and distracted drivers. It also examines the more offbeat: people injured in accidents involving televisions (table 197), cyberbullying (table 247) and honey bee colonies (table 860).

And when you need data on pretty much any topic that ends up being in the news in the coming year, count on finding it in the Stat Abstract.

For more information, read the press release or visit the 2011 Statistical Abstract website.

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