U
. S . C E N S U S O F H O U S I
N G & P O P U L A
T I O N
See the HOUSING ISSUES page, to be uploaded in the near future...
Fixing the Census
NYTIMES
By Alan B. Krueger (Alan B. Krueger is an economics professor at
Princeton).
January 26, 2009, 6:31 am
Serious problems in the planning for the 2010 census have been in the
news lately. The census has fallen well behind schedule because of
technology glitches, and as a result the Government Accountability
Office has listed the population count as one of the 13 urgent issues
requiring immediate attention in the first year of the new presidential
administration, up there with homeland security and Iraq. Without
urgent action to prepare and test survey procedures, the 2010 census
will miss more people than the 2000 census.
Why should you care? The census provides the foundation for computing
many economic statistics, including the unemployment and poverty rates,
and is the basis for congressional redistricting. Census data are also
used to allocate money to states and local areas. Minorities and city
dwellers are more likely to be undercounted by the census. Thus,
problems with the census have serious economic and political
consequences...
Please search the NYTIMES archives for the remainder of this story.
Data Show Steady Drop in Americans on
Move
NYTIMES
By SAM ROBERTS
December 21, 2008
Despite the nation’s reputation as a rootless society, only about one
in 10 Americans moved in the last year — roughly half the proportion
that changed residences as recently as four decades ago, census data
show.
The monthly Current Population Survey found that fewer than 12 percent
of Americans moved since 2007, a decline of nearly a full percentage
point compared with the year before. In the 1950s and ’60s, the number
of movers hovered near 20 percent...
Please search the NYTIMES archives for the remainder of this story.
Estimate
from State Data Center at
UCONN...is this partially the result of lagging housing starts and
sales of existing units? What will the housing data forthcoming
from Census 2010 show?
Growth stalls in the state
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Kate King, Special Correspondent
Article Launched: 07/11/2008 01:00:00 AM EDT
Fairfield County saw a small increase in population despite a drop
statewide, according to census figures released yesterday.
Stamford, Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien and Westport all saw minor
increases, according to the data. Norwalk posted a decline of 0.1
percent. But the statewide picture isn't promising, experts say,
pointing to a shrinking work force, loss of jobs, an aging population
and a potential reduction in state representation in Washington, D.C.
"This population growth is consistent with our slow growth in the
recent past," said Lisa Mercurio, director of the Business Council of
Fairfield County. "New England as a whole has been growing more slowly
than the rest of the U.S..."
Please search the ADVOCATE's archives for the remainder of this story.
"About Town" notes that census data
counts the number of people living in a residence--but it is
always an under-counted number because people tend to not declare
illegal apartments, more families living in an apartment than the lease
permits, or illegal alians...
2010
Census: Who Should Count?
By
MICHAEL REGAN | Courant Staff Writer
September 30, 2007
Border states in America's South and West are battlegrounds in the
debate over illegal immigration, but when it's time to pass out seats
in Congress, they are beneficiaries as well, a new study says.
Because of their large populations of undocumented residents, Texas and
Arizona will each get one extra seat in the U.S. House of
Representatives after the 2010 Census, the Connecticut State Data
Center projects in a report being released today. California will keep
two seats it otherwise would have lost.
Overall, the South and West each stand to gain five seats in the House,
the center at the University of Connecticut says. If it weren't for
their populations of illegal immigrants, each of these regions would
gain only three.
The big loser in the reapportionment will be the Midwest, the center
says. Five states in that region are projected to lose a total of six
seats, four more than they would have if illegal immigrants were not
included in the census tally.
Connecticut, which lost a seat in the last reapportionment, should keep
the five it now has, but the Northeast as a whole will lose four - two
in New York and one each in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
There's more than congressional clout at stake in the reapportionment:
It also helps determine the makeup of the Electoral College. And the
census itself influences everything from federal aid to the makeup of
state legislatures. So as the 2010 Census approaches, attention is
turning to the issue of whether it's fair to continue counting illegal
immigrants.
Orlando J. Rodriguez, manager of the Connecticut State Data Center and
author of the new report, considered that issue when designing the
study. He figured the reapportionment two ways - one in which all
residents are counted, as is currently done, and one in which illegal
immigrants are factored out. Although politics watchers have been
handicapping the 2010 reapportionment almost since 2000 was completed,
Rodriguez said this is the first study he knows of to factor in the
immigration question...
Please search the Hartford Courant's archives for the remainder of this story.
From the past...
Census: Connecticut Homes Got
Bigger In '90s - Associated Press
September
03, 2001
HARTFORD
Conn. (AP) - Soaring land prices and new
zoning regulations led to a surge in the construction of large homes in
Connecticut during the 1990s, according to homebuilders and a new
survey
by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Between 1990
and 2000, the number of large homes
with nine or more rooms increased 14 percent while the number of
medium-size
houses with three to five rooms remained stagnant, the survey shows.
The data
also showed a surprisingly rapid increase
in the number of small homes with two rooms, which some housing experts
attributed to the construction of homes with assisted-living services
for
older people.
Homebuilders
say land prices and zoning regulations
have forced them to build bigger houses.
"It's
getting more and more difficult to basically
make a reasonable profit building smaller homes," said Bill Ethier,
executive
vice president of the Home Builders Association of Connecticut. "If you
have to spend $100,000 or $200,000 just to buy a lot, it's very
difficult
to put a modest-sized house on that lot."
State
Rep. Jefferson B. Davis, D-Pomfret, co-chairman of the Legislature's
Planning and Development Committee, agrees with homebuilders that local
land regulations and local governments' heavy reliance on property taxes
limit development to big houses on big lots.
With the bigger lots, people of different income levels are being prevented from sharing a sense of community, Davis said.
"It has struck me, as I listen to people around the state, that the
issue of community is extremely important, whether it's a city or a
suburb or a rural area," he said. "People have been expressing real hurt
and a personal sense of loss as they see their view of community
vanishing."
Please search the Hartford Courant archives for the remainder of this story.