As we approach Halloween, ghosts and trick or treaters alike might wonder where the most ghoulish celebrations will be.

Social Explorer’s tools allow them to examine data on religious cults and sects.  With data from the 2009 Religious Data Survey (from the Association of Religion Data Archives), users can research where cult and sect members worship and plan their haunting and candy routes accordingly.

According to the data, there are 25 such congregations in the US, reporting 7,637 members.  Which states might peddle in the most pagan rituals?   The following states have sect and/or cult congregations:

• California
• Florida
• Hawaii
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Missouri
• North Carolina
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Texas
• Washington

To explore detailed religion data elsewhere in the country and at the county level, visit Social Explorer’s maps and reports tools.

Happy Dataween!

With the Occupy Wall Street protest bringing attention to “the other 99 percent,” the spotlight has also turned to the wealthiest Americans.  In the New York Times article “As the Data Show, There’s a Reason the Wall Street Protesters Chose New York,” Sam Roberts explains that “the megarich hold more of the nation’s wealth and collect more of the overall income today than at any time since right before the Great Depression.”  He cites Social Explorer’s Andrew Beveridge:

Certainly, the protesters picked the right city in which to start their campaign. Among the 1 percent of American households with the highest income, a significant portion, 13 percent, live in the New York metropolitan area, with 4.4 percent living in Manhattan, according to an analysis by Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociologist at Queens College. In three Manhattan neighborhoods, the Upper East and Upper West Sides and Greenwich Village, more than 11 percent of the households make enough to qualify for the top 1 percent.

The related article “Top Earners Doubled Share of Nation’s Income, Study Finds,” details findings by the Congressional Budget Office about gains made by the country’s top earners.

Social Explorer tools and resources allow for further examination of the most affluent Americans.  From unpublished detailed American Community Survey (ACS) data for the years 2005-2009 (not yet available in Social Explorer), the top 1 percent of households earned at least $394,600, compared to no more  $12,282 for the bottom 10 percent or no more than $132,836 for the bottom 90%.  (These figures are adjusted to 2010 dollars.)

With the current state of the economy, it is likely that the latest data will show a decline in these numbers.  Still, the super-affluent are much, much richer than the quite well off.

The published tables in the ACS provide detailed annual data on income for the top 5 percent of earners.  Using the ACS data already available in Social Explorer, we examined this elite population in the US, New York City, Manhattan and Washington, DC.  (All income figures adjusted to 2010 dollars.)

The census recently started blocking certain detailed data on the income threshold for top income earner when that threshold was more than $250,001.  However, we can still look at the mean income of this group both before and after the recession.

A graph of this data shows the strong earning power in the borough of Manhattan, as well as the impact of the recession.  Nationwide, mean income for the top five percent remained relatively stable, while in Manhattan it experienced bigger ups and downs.

Mean Income for Top 5 Percent of Earners

Using Social Explorer’s maps, users can also see where high earners live.

Manhattan Map of Households Earning Over $200,000 per year (2005-09 American Community Survey)

Click around the map to learn more about high earners in New York City and across the country.

For more on the bottom of the 99 percent, read the recent New York Times articles on the nation’s poorest community and the county that suffered the most since the recession (both cited Social Explorer data and analysis).

New Hampshire may move its primary to December from January to get ahead of other states.  As the presidential election seasons begins to go into high gear, commentators once again note how unrepresentative the early states are, especially New Hampshire and Iowa.

Because New Hampshire has an open primary—allowing people from all party affiliations to vote—the demographics of the state more closely represent the demographics of potential voters.  Various commentators have speculated on how the demographics might influence the outcome of the primary.

Social Explorer took a look at 2010 census data to see just how the granite state compares with the rest of the US.

With 1,316,470 residents, New Hampshire represents 0.43 percent of the entire US population.  By comparison, California represents 12.07 percent of the country.  It would take more than 28 New Hampshires to equal California in population.

New Hampshire residents are a few years older than most of the country, with a median age of 41.1 years (higher than the national median of 37.1 years).

New Hampshire’s population is whiter than the rest of the nation—93.9 percent white versus 72.4 percent white.  The state also has many fewer black and Hispanic residents—1.1 percent black compared to 12.6 percent nationwide, and 2.8 percent Hispanic compared to 16.4 percent.

Of course the primary would be a boon to New Hampshire’s hotel and hospitality industry.  According to the 2010 American Community Survey, the arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services sector employs 55,368 New Hampshire residents (8.1 percent of the employed population).

Social Explorer’s 2010 American Community Survey data helps us learn more about the state’s population.  Educational attainment in New Hampshire is higher than the rest of the nation, with fewer residents not having high school degrees (8.5 percent compared to 14.4 percent), and more people with bachelors and masters degrees.  Also, the high school drop out rate is lower in New Hampshire than the rest of the US—3.1 percent compared to 5.6 percent.

Unemployment is higher nationwide (10.8 percent) than in New Hampshire (7.8 percent), but New Hampshire may have experienced a bigger drop, more than doubling the unemployment between 2000 and 2010 (3.8 percent to 7.8 percent, while the nationwide rate increased from 5.8 percent to 10.8 percent).

Economically, the state is better off than the rest of the nation.  Median income is 22 percent higher in New Hampshire than nationwide ($61,042 compared to $50,046).  And, because New Hampshire has no income tax, residents get to keep more of their pay.  Also, the poverty rate in New Hampshire is less than half the rate nationwide (5.3 percent compared to 11.3 percent).

Looking at health coverage, nationwide 15.5 percent of residents do not have any kind of health coverage, while 11.1 percent of New Hampshire residents lack coverage.

Religion has already been a hot topic in the presidential race, and Social Explorer’s data from the Association of Religion Data Archives (2009) lets users explore more dimensions of demography not available from the Census Bureau.

One in four New Hampshire residents belongs to a congregation, which is less than the nationwide rate of one in three.  Comparing religious groups around the country, the US has more Evangelical and Mainline Protestants than New Hampshire, while New Hampshire has more Roman Catholics than the US.

As for much-discussed Mormons, New Hampshire has 15 of the nation’s 6,632 Mormon congregations.  Though Mormonism is more prevalent nationwide than in New Hampshire, less than 1 percent of the US population belongs to a Mormon congregation.  (Meanwhile, in Utah 14.3 percent of the population belongs to a Mormon congregation.)

Overall, the data show that New Hampshire is (to varying degrees) older, whiter, more affluent, better educated, more likely to have health coverage and less religious than the rest of the country.  We will find out the impact of these demographics on the presidential election as early as December.

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  Before ever reaching the Americas, on his first voyage he landed in the Bahamas.

With Columbus Day approaching, Social Explorer is taking a look at Bahamians in the US.

In 1880, the Census reported that there were 9,484 West Indians living in the U.S. (0.02 percent of the total population). 

Today, according to the 2010 American Community Survey, there are 2,375,201 West Indians in the U.S. (people who claimed West Indian as their first reported ancestry).  

This data on ancestry is broken down further by country, and 38,704 of these West Indians are from the Bahamas.  Adding the number of people who reported West Indian as a second ancestry, a total of 48,043 people in the U.S. are West Indian. 

To see where the ancestors of the first people to interact with Columbus in the region of the Americas, check out this interactive  map of the West Indian population.

West Indians in the U.S.

(2005-09 American Community Survey, census tract level)

Users of the free edition can take a look at map of 2000 data.

Librarians love Social Explorer, and now we have 12 more reasons to love them back.

As census data show, men make up a small proportion of the population of librarians, but a number of them have brought this minority into the spotlight with the publication of the Men of the Stacks calendar.   (See Zack as Mr. January at left, and Brett as Mr. March below.)

This summer,  Social Explorer conducted an analysis of data on librarians, offering a picture of the profession today and outlining trends over decades.

“Librarians in the U.S. from 1880-2009: An analysis using 120 years of census data”

Among the findings:

• Today, 83 percent of librarians are women, but in the 1880s men had the edge, making up 52 percent of the 636 librarians enumerated.
• In 1930, male librarians were truly rare, making up just 8 percent of the librarian population.
• Male librarians out-earned female librarians in 1950 and 1990, but by 2009, median wages for the two sexes were within $100 of each other

Now you can take a look at a few librarians while taking a look at librarian data.

Here’s a description of the making of the calendar highlighting this small subset of librarians (proceeds going to the It Gets Better Project):

The Men of the Stacks project was first conceived a couple of years ago after learning of the publication of another library-themed calendar.  Our first reaction to that calendar?  “Well, cool but…where are all the men?”  There was another, earlier calendar that featured only male librarians, but we felt it didn’t quite capture the way we saw ourselves.  In both cases, either the stereotype was reinforced or it didn’t go far enough in breaking free of it.

There is an entire population of professional librarians out there who disagree with the way the library profession is perceived in contemporary media outlets and in the historical consciousness of the American mind.  Different people and different associations will use different means to try to change those perceptions.  This is ours.