All Things Census

The 2011 Canada Census exceeded its targets for online response, and the overall response rate in 2011 was higher than it had been in 2006, according to a news account. The success of the online response campaign in Canada will be studied by U.S. Census Bureau officials, who intend to offer an online option in the 2020 Census.

Pew Research Center reports can add context to the Census Bureau's release of 2010 data on U.S. income, poverty and health insurance coverage. These Pew Research Center reports, linked to in this article, have documented the impact of the Great Recession and shaky recovery on Americans’ wealth, work lives, personal finances and emotional well-being.

Census data can be used to measure change since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, as illustrated by a Wall Street Journal story about lower Manhattan. The Census Bureau itself has published a case study of how one group used census data to argue successfully for an expanded relief-distribution zone in New York's Chinatown.

This posting discusses the challenges for the Census Bureau in counting same-sex couples, married and unmarried. The accuracy of data depends on responses in Census Bureau questionnaires and bureau procedures to collect and edit responses, and the posting describes both.

A new Pew Hispanic Center report, using census data, documents a 24% increase in college enrollment from 2009 to 2010 by Hispanics ages 18-24, and compares the statistics for Hispanics with those of other groups.

The gender gap in college education is the subject of a new Pew Research Center report that includes analysis of public opinion data and of Census Bureau statistics. Women surpass men among recent college graduates, and women also have a more positive view of the value of a college education. The report includes Current Population […]

A workshop that brought together Census Bureau staff and expert users to discuss the bureau's American Community Survey produced the finding that the survey's greatest asset is its local-level data, but that users are concerned about the large margins of error associated with those small-area estimates. Users and Census Bureau staff also discussed possible changes to the survey and bureau outreach to users.

Some users of Census data may be surprised to learn what the 2010 Census did not ask, because many detailed items about demographics, economics and housing now are included in the American Community Survey. This posting includes a link to an article by sociologist Andrew Beveridge about the differences between Census 2010 and the ACS, as well as links to questionnaire forms.

New York City filed its official challenge to 2010 Census results today, stating that the count missed at least 50,000 people, in large part because occupied units were erroneously termed vacant.

Australia's 2011 Census is this week, marking a century of census-taking in that country. The form includes a question about religion, unlike the U.S. Census form, and the statistics agency will report same-sex marriages for the first time.