All Things Census

A new Pew Research Center report shows that the share of upper-income households living in neighborhoods that are mainly upper income has risen from 1980 to 2010, as has the share of lower-income households living in neighborhoods where most other households are lower income. Income segregation also has grown in most of the nation's largest metropolitan areas.

The nation’s racial and ethnic minority groups—especially Hispanics—are growing more rapidly than the non-Hispanic white population, fueled by both immigration and births.

At the Population Association of America’s annual conference in San Francisco this week, papers on the recession’s impact on families, wealth, children, young adults, older Americans and other realms of life will be presented in at least 10 of the 200-plus sessions. Much of the research is preliminary, but it raises intriguing questions. One paper tries to assess whether the poor economy has affected divorce rates.

The Population Association of America's annual conference this week includes posters and papers by Pew Research Center authors. The posting includes links to their work.

Starting in 2013, the Census Bureau would like all of the more than 3 million households that receive its American Community Survey to be pushed to respond online, instead of mailing back the traditional paper questionnaire. The bureau recently released results of a test of online response that had some encouraging results.

A new Pew Hispanic Center survey includes findings on how U.S. Latinos prefer to describe themselves, as well as their views on race, shared culture, language use, the immigrant experience and other topics. A central finding is that slightly more than half prefer to describe themselves by their family's country of origin, while only a minority use the words "Hispanic" or "Latino."

The release of records from the 1940 Census will help people research their family history, although at first the records can only be searched by address, not name. This posting details some of the findings and methods of the 1940 Census.

The 1940 Census was notable in the history of census-taking because it was the first in which some questions were asked of sample of Americans. This change enabled the Census Bureau to add questions to the form that were relevant to the Great Depression, and opened the door to the widened use of sample surveys in later censuses.

The Pew Hispanic Center has updated its demographic and economic profiles of the Hispanic and non-Hispanic populations in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, based on the 2010 American Community Survey of the Census Bureau. Pew Hispanic also has updated interactive maps and population counts for counties of the U.S. Hispanic population.

A new report from the Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends project analyzes the rising prevalence of racial and ethnic intermarriage, and compares rates among different ethnic and racial groups. The report also uses public opinion data to look at changing attitudes toward intermarriage.