Social Explorer is ringing in the New Year with new data!   The five-year American Community Survey (2006-2010) data are now available on Social Explorer.  These data come from the American Community Survey (ACS), an extensive annual survey administered by the Census Bureau to a sample of about 3 million households nationwide.  This five-year file offers subscribers a new level of detailed demographic information.  (Where the 2010 ACS shares information at the PUMA level–about 65,000 in population–and the 2008-10 ACS shares information at 20,000 in population, the five-year file shares data down to the Census Tract and Block Group.)  We also have available all of the 2010 Census Data, which is based upon seven questions, also down to the block group.

It is important to note that comparing the 2010 ACS data with earlier ACS years could lead to faulty comparisons.  Now that the Census Bureau has the official 2010 numbers, it readjusted the population base for the 2010 survey and all prior surveys in its data products.  This means that information presented in the last few years would be different because they were adjusted to the new base.  In short, comparing 2010 to say 2009, one cannot be sure if the change is real or based upon adjustment, so always check your numbers.

Also, for those concerned with the ending of the the “Legacy Version” of the Census Bureau’s American Factfinder on January 20th, we want to assure you that we do not plan any interface changes.  This means you can keep accessing data from 1790 through 2010 through Social Explorer using our familiar interface.

Subscribers can access this and the rest of our data through the maps and the reports tabs. The ACS 2006-2010 data are currently up as reports, and we are testing the maps for release in a few days. Click here to find out more about subscribing to all of Social Explorer’s tools and resources.

You can expect many new features in Social Explorer in the New Year, including updated data on religious congregations, new localized data on major cities in the United States, and a host of new features for mapping, visualizing and saving your research.

Social Explorer wishes demography fans everywhere a very Happy New Year!

In contrast to most economic news, the oil industry is booming in North Dakota.  In the New York Times article “A Great Divide Over Oil Riches,” A. G. Sulzberger reports on mineral rights in Mountrail County and the revenue’s impact on landowners, speculators and the area.  He cites analysis from Social Explorer’s Andrew Beveridge, and features a map and chart based on Beveridge’s and the Census Bureau’s numbers.

Sure enough, money is flowing by the barrelful into Mountrail County, transforming a tiny community once proudly situated in the middle of nowhere into an unexpected oasis of prosperity at the heart of the nation’s biggest oil play.

No other county in the state has had a bigger jump in the number of households earning more than $100,000, which spiked to 21 percent from 6 percent during the last decade, according to an analysis of census data. But much like the crude below, the benefits have spread unevenly, often as a result of decisions made long ago.

…With the unemployment rate at only 1.3 percent, local sons and daughters are no longer leaving to find work.

And as the rest of the nation watched incomes drop or stagnate, in Mountrail County median income rose more than 50 percent in the last decade, the fifth-highest gain in the nation. Residents earned on average an additional $20,000, adjusted for inflation, according to an analysis of census data by Andrew A. Beveridge, a demographer at Queens College in New York.

Click here to read the full article.

Ever since his workshop signed up for a subscription, Santa has been a fan of Social Explorer.  This very moment, he’s making his map…checking it twice.

With the latest Census data, he can figure out how many occupied homes there are in the US (116,716,292 units) and where they’re located.

Occupied Homes Along Santa’s Route (2010 Census)

As he plans out his presents, Santa will surely want to know where children live.  With just a few clicks (and without stirring a single mouse), he can map where the nation’s 40,550,019 kids under 10 years old live.

Priority Present Recipients (Children Under 10, Census 2010)

In the coming months, he’ll be able to upload his own naughty/nice dataset.  We’ll tell you more about that in the new year.

Happy holidays from Social Explorer!

In the article “Births Drop in Region Amid Sagging Economy,” Journal News reporter Jane Lerner explores the decline in birthrates in Westchester and nationwide.  Looking at hospital data, demographic change and a recent study by the Pew Research Center, she examines the recession and other factors behind the trend.

Recent data from the Journal News, the Department of Health and Pew show that:

• Births at all but two hospitals in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam declined between 2000 and 2010 (often with a sharper drop after 2007).
• The total number of babies born at hospitals in the three counties declined 13 percent between 2000 and 2010 (over half the decline–seven percent–took place between 2007 and 2010).
• The birthrate dropped from 69.6 births per thousand women ages 15-44 in 2007 to 66.7 births per thousand in the same group in 2009.
• Additional preliminary data indicate a further drop to 64.7 births per thousand in 2010.
• From 2008 to 2009, birth rates dropped by 5.9 percent among Hispanic women, compared with a 2.4 percent drop among black women and 1.6 decline for white women.

She also cites Social Explorer’s Andrew Beveridge

The birth decline in the Lower Hudson Valley is likely the result of several different trends — some linked to the current bad economic times and others that have nothing to do with it, experts said.

The population in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam is aging, which in part explains the drop in babies, said Andrew Beveridge, a professor of sociology at Queens College and the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York.

“With all the empty nesters, you would expect to see fewer births,” he said.

Fewer young families are moving from the city to the suburbs as urban living becomes more popular, further reducing the number of babies born locally.

But the poor economy is likely playing some role in the drop in the number of births locally, said Beveridge, a Yonkers resident.

“When people get insecure they’re less likely to have kids,” he said.

The article ends with a look to the future:

Experts expect the region’s high unemployment rate to continue to have an impact on the number of babies being born until the economy gets significantly better.

“As a longterm trend you really do want to have kids,” Beveridge said. “Without kids, the future looks bleak longterm.”

Click here to read the full article.

While discussions about tax policy changes swirl in Albany, an analysis of the Census shows that wealthy New Yorkers have stayed in the state regardless of tax rate changes.  In the New York Times City Room article “Wealthy New Yorkers Are Staying In State, Census Shows,” Sam Roberts examines the controversy over maintaining or increasing taxes on the wealthy.  He cites data and analysis from Social Explorer’s Andrew Beveridge in his discussion.

Opponents of extending the surcharge have argued that it would chase away the rich and, as a result, reduce overall tax revenue. But two census analyses do not support that view.

According to the Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey, the average household income of those who left the state in 2010 was $44,739. The average for those who came was $55,419 — the largest differential in at least five years.

“Despite claims to contrary,” said Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociologist at Queens College of the City University of New York, “it appears that among affluent households, more chose to move to New York State and City than chose to leave it.”

A separate analysis of census data found that the number of households making more than $250,000 who lived in New York a year earlier but left peaked in 2004 and has generally declined since 2007. About 14,000 households in 2009 and the about the same number in 2010 reported having left New York within the past year, the lowest numbers in that category since 2003.

Click here to read the full article.

In “Newt’s War on Poor Children,” New York Times columnist Charles Blow looks at the data to scrutinize presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s statements about children and poverty.  He takes on Gingrich’s recent claim that, “Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works. So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash’ unless it’s illegal.”

Blow disputes this argument and cites data and analysis from Social Explorer’s Andrew Beveridge:

This statement isn’t only cruel and, broadly speaking, incorrect, it’s mind-numbingly tone-deaf at a time when poverty is rising in this country. He comes across as a callous Dickensian character in his attitude toward America’s most vulnerable — our poor children. This is the kind of statement that shines light on the soul of a man and shows how dark it is.

Furthermore, according to an analysis of census data by Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociologist at Queens College, most poor children live in a household where at least one parent is employed. And even among children who live in extreme poverty — defined here as a household with income less than 50 percent of the poverty level — a third have at least one working parent. And even among extremely poor children who live in extremely poor areas — those in which 30 percent or more of the population is poor — nearly a third live with at least one working parent.

The article also includes a graphic “Poor Children, Working Families” based on analysis of data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey from Andrew Beveridge.

After the article appeared Beveridge conducted further analysis, and it turns out that the a child’s neighborhood has little effect on the percent with working parents, anyone working in the household or the kids working themselves.  (Those data are only available for 15 to 17 year olds.)

Looking at parents or anyone working in the household for kids in extreme poverty, the percentages are 34.5 percent for those with at least one parent working and 37.4 percent for those with any person 18 and over working in the household.  Among the kids themselves, some 10.9 percent are working.

It is poverty itself, not the neighborhood, that mostly shapes these results.  For instance, while 33.3 percent of those in extreme poverty in neighborhoods with at least 30 percent of population in poverty have someone in the household who is working, in those neighborhoods with poverty rates of less than 10 percent in poverty the figure is 40.2 percent.

Despite the fact that many of the poor live in single parent families and are on public assistance, this analysis shows that a substantial number of poor families are in fact working.  They do not fit the common stereotype that neither their parents or anyone else the household works.

Read the full article here.

The 2008-10 American Community Survey (ACS) maps and reports are now available on Social Explorer.  The data come from the American Community Survey (ACS), an extensive annual survey administered by the Census Bureau to a sample of about 3 million households nationwide.  This three-year file offers subscribers a new level of detail.  Where the 2010 ACS shares information at the PUMA level (about 65,000 in population), the 2008-10 ACS shares information at 20,000 in population.

Subscribers can access this and the rest of our data through the maps and the reports tabs.  Click here to find out more about subscribing for access to the latest data and all of Social Explorer’s tools and resources.