D’Vera Cohn

The largest wave of immigration in history from a single country to the United States has come to a standstill.

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.

How much did the U.S. foreign-born population grow from 2009 to 2010? According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the number grew by 1.5 million, or 4%. But a new Pew Hispanic Center analysis concludes that the growth was markedly lower.

The U.S. population in 2010 included 39.9 million foreign-born residents. This estimate, the latest available for the foreign-born population, is 1.5 million, or 4%, higher than the survey’s 38.5 million estimate in 2009.

A new Pew Research Center report analyzes trends in marriage rates, age at first marriage and number of new marriages. It finds that barely half of U.S. adults are married, continuing a downward trend. In addition, the median age at first marriage for men and women has never been higher. And the number of people who married within the past year fell 5% from 2009 to 2010.

Barely half of all adults in the United States—a record low—are currently married, and the median age at first marriage has never been higher for brides and grooms.