US Census Keeps Marriage Questions

Responding in part to pressure from the Family Research Council, the US Census Bureau has decided to keep the marriage-related questions that appear on the survey it sends to nearly 300,000 households every month.

The bureau had proposed eliminating questions from the American Community Survey that asked respondents whether they have been married, widowed or divorced within the past year. Also proposed for removal were questions on how many times a person has been married and when he or she last got married, which can be used to measure marital stability. Agency officials announced their about-face on the marriage questions, in part because of criticism from researchers, in a Federal Register notice published last month. Census Bureau officials said the volume of comments on the proposal to drop the questions – nearly 1,700 – was “unprecedented in the history of the survey.” More than 400 of those comments said the proposal showed the bureau did not value information about marriage, and some conservative groups (including some who oppose same-sex marriage) have spoken out against the proposal. More than 100 comments, including some from population research groups, argued that the questions are needed to measure marriage trends, because there is no other national source of this information and quality of state vital statistics vary greatly.

The survey is used to help guide the distribution of more than $400B in federal funds annually.

Popular Street Names By State

From the Washington Post:

For decades we have believed that the most popular name for a road was “2nd.” But by my analysis, that crown actually goes to “Park.” (Again, look to the methodology section for a discussion of this.) Out of over a million roads in the United States, 9,640 are named “Park.” Only 8,232 are named “2nd,” or “Second.” Still, both the Census and I agree that “2nd” is a more popular road name than “1st.” The most convincing explanation anyone has come up with so far is that in many towns the primary thoroughfare is “Main” street instead of “1st” street. Because those two names split the honor, so to speak, they tumble in the rankings. Trees, numbers, and presidents are the most popular names for streets, which is understandable.

US Census: Population Is 320M

Via Reuters:

The U.S. population is seen at 320.09 million people as of Jan. 1, up 0.73 percent from a year earlier, the Census Bureau said on Monday. The Census Bureau said in a statement that the figure represents an increase of about 11.35 million people, or 3.67 percent, since the last population count on April 1, 2010. "In January 2015, the U.S. is expected to experience a birth every eight seconds and one death every 12 seconds. Meanwhile, net international migration is expected to add one person to the U.S. population every 33 seconds," the Census Bureau said. It said the combination of births, deaths and net international migration would add at least one person to the U.S. population every 16 seconds.

The Census Bureau estimates the current world population to be 7.2B, an increase of 80M over this time last year. That's about two Californias in the last 12 months.

Census: 500K Gays Have Married In USA

Via Gay Star News:

Over half a million Americans have married a partner of the same-sex, new Census data released this month reveals. The United States Census Bureau estimated in 2012 that there were only 182,000 same-sex married couples in America. However revised estimates from the bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey upped that figure substantially to nearly 252,000. That figure does not include same-sex couples who married but then later divorced. In comparison there are 56 million American households that are headed by opposite-sex married couples. The Census Bureau also found that only 50.3% of Americans over 18 were in married relationships in 2013 – down from an all time high in 1960 when 72.2% of Americans were in opposite-sex marriages and same-sex relationships were illegal and not recorded.

Feds: Married Gays Are Now "Families"

Via the Charlotte Observer:

New census data released Thursday made a simple but substantial change in categorizing same-sex married couples: They now are considered families. In prior years, the U.S. Census Bureau counted such couples as “unmarried partners,” even if they were legally married. But now, starting with the new annual American Community Survey, they are in among the family totals. That picture includes nearly 56 million married-couple households in the nation last year, according to the new estimates. Same-sex couples accounted for a sliver of that total, some 251,695 homes. Same-sex couples who live together but are not married are still counted as “unmarried partners,” the same designation for unmarried opposite-sex couples. The Census Bureau has counted same-sex couples since 1990. The change in handling same-sex married couples followed the June 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act, said Rose Kreider, chief of the Census Bureau’s Fertility and Family Statistics Branch. Gay married couples in states where that practice is legal must receive the same federal benefits that other married couples receive, the court ruled.

The annual version of the census surveys about 3.5 million households.

US Census To Count Married Gays

Via the Washington Post:

The Census Bureau, which struggles to keep up with the rapid changes in American life, is about to start categorizing same-sex married couples as families. The 2013 American Community Survey results, which will be reported in September, will mark the first time the census integrates an estimated 180,000 same-sex married couples with statistics concerning the nation’s 56 million families. Until now, they had been categorized as unmarried partners, even when couples reported themselves as spouses. Because of the large disparity between the number of gay and straight married households, combining the two is not expected to have a significant effect on the statistics that scholars and planners use to analyze how families are changing. Its significance is largely symbolic of the growing acceptance of gays in American society.

Oh yes, there will be screaming.

US Census Drops "Negro"

The US Census will no longer ask citizens if they consider themselves to be "Negro."

The description has come to be viewed as outdated and even offensive by many people in the black community, officials say, so the bureau will reduce the options to "black" or "African-American." The agency will include the new language next year in its annual American Community Survey, which reaches upwards of 3.5 million households in the United States. The term's use dates back five centuries to when Portuguese and Spanish explorers used their languages' word for black to describe the people of sub-Saharan African.

The first census in 1790 had three categories: free whites, all other free persons, and slaves. The term "Negro" was first used in 1900. 

RELATED: In 2008 the United Negro College Fund rebranded itself as the UNCF but elected to keep "Negro" in its formal name despite some calls for a full change.  The UNCF's motto, "A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste," is widely considered one of the most successful advertising slogans in history.

The Census Wants Advice About Gays

Chris Geidner reports on an unprecedented move by the U.S. Census.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced Friday that it is seeking advice on how to address lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations in implementing the once-a-decade census. The census, which has never counted LGBT people directly, has indirectly referenced gay people through its count of same-sex married couples and "unmarried partner" households in the past. With the formation of the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations, however, the Census Bureau today stated that it will be seeking advice from the 31-member committee "on topics such as housing, children, youth, poverty, privacy, race and ethnicity, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other populations." Specifically, the Bureau noted, the committee will provide advice on "a wide range of variables that affect the cost, accuracy and implementation of the Census Bureau's programs and surveys, including the once-a-decade census."

Geidner speculates that the Census Bureau may be seeking a method to more accurately count (or at least estimate) the number of LGBT Americans.

LGBT Couples Are More Mixed

More number crunching from the 2010 census.

Feds With A Sense Of Humor

Australian feds, actually.

Age, Income, Kids: New Study Says Gay Families Similar To Straight Families

According to new study of U.S. Census Bureau data performed by researchers at UCLA, there's not much difference between straight families and gay couples who report themselves as married.

Same-sex couples who identify as married are similar to straight spouses in terms of age and income, and nearly one-third of them are raising children, according to Census data released Monday that provides a demographic snapshot of gay families in America. The study released by a think tank based at UCLA also found that Utah and Wyoming were among the states with the highest percentages of gay spouses in 2008, despite being heavily conservative states with no laws providing legal recognition of gay relationships. The data from the annual American Community Survey showed that nearly 150,000 same-sex couples in the U.S., or more than one in four, referred to one another as "husband" or "wife," although UCLA researchers estimate that no more than 32,000 of the couples were legally married. The couples had an average age of 52 and household incomes of $91,558, while 31 percent were raising children. That compares with an average age of 50, household income of $95,075 and 43 percent raising children for married heterosexual couples.

The Census Bureau has promised to perform its own study of married gays after the 2010 count, but says they were not able to alter the questionnaire to separate out legally married gays from those claiming a non-legal marital-type relationship.

Our Solo-Centric Island

New information from the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that just over half of Manhattan's residences are home to just one person, the highest such level in the nation.

More than half of all Manhattan residents are living alone -- and the number of singles in the city is continuing to rise to historic levels, new Census Bureau data show. That means you've got a 50-50 shot that the cute neighbor down the hall is looking for love. The borough now resembles some kind of "Sex and the City" fantasyland with a majority of households, 50.3 percent, with just one resident -- no roommate, no spouse, no family, no kids. When the other four boroughs are factored in, the single household rate drops to 33.5 percent -- a little closer to the national average of 27.5 percent, according the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

New York first passed the 50 percent mark in 2007 in what sociologists called an inevitable trend. There are numerous forces turning Manhattan into an isle of singletons, explained William Helmreich, deputy chairman of City College's sociology department. The factors include high-paying jobs, the expense of raising a family, longer-living widows and widowers, and, of course, a celebrated culture of singledom. "Singles attract more singles," he said. "They participate in a lifestyle that is mutually reinforcing. The more single people engage in that lifestyle, the more acceptable it is, and the more acceptable it is, the more people are going to do it."

I don't think the first paragraph in the above-quoted NY Post story has the numbers quite right. While 376,916 solo residences may be 50.3% of the total number of homes, with Manhattan's population at 1.6M that means that only about 25% of the island lives alone, not half.

I've lived alone for the (almost) six years I've been on the Upper East Side. The last time I lived alone before then was 1979, my sophomore year in college. After almost 25 years of living with a roommate, or a boyfriend (or more often - a boyfriend and a roommate), it was initially quite a luxury to be alone, if occasionally lonely. But pretty soon you've got your house keys on a dozen out-of-towners' key rings and have you have to start a calendar to track incoming visitors. I imagine lots of the above-cited "Manhattan loners" do the same.

Census Bureau: No Counting Gay Marriages

The U.S. Census Bureau announced that it will not be counting gay marriages in its 2010 nationwide count of Americans and how they live. In fact they will "edit" the responses of legally married gay couples to change their status to "unmarried partners."

The U.S. Census Bureau, reacting to the federal Defense of Marriage Act and other mandates, plans to edit the 2010 census responses of same-sex couples who marry legally in California, Massachusetts or any other state. They will be reported as "unmarried partners," rather than married spouses, in census tabulations - a policy that will likely draw the ire of gay rights groups.

The Census Bureau followed the same procedure for the 2000 census, and it does not plan to change in 2010 even though courts in Massachusetts and now California have ruled gay men and lesbians can marry lawfully.

"This has been a question we've been looking at for quite a long time," said Martin O'Connell, chief of the Census Bureau's Fertility and Family Statistics Branch. "It's not something the bureau could arbitrarily or casually decide to change on a whim, because our data is used by virtually every federal agency." The Census Bureau is not falsifying people's responses, O'Connell said, because the bureau will retain people's original census responses.

Shannon Minter of the National Center For Lesbian Rights: "To have the federal government disappear your marriage I'm sure will be painful and upsetting. It really is something out of Orwell. It's shameful."