Research

During the decades since the second World War, Virginia’s population has been one of the fastest growing among states on the east coast. Much of Virginia’s growth was fueled by an influx of migrants coming down the BosWash corridor from the Northeast into Virginia as well as from the Mid-West. In 1940, only 5 percent […]

The Census Bureau recently released new migration data based on the 2009-2013 5-year American Community Survey estimates. This data estimates how many people move between each of the country’s metropolitan areas over the course of a year.There are plenty of interesting things that can be teased out of this data, but flow data is always […]

As I mentioned in my last post, there are a whole host of considerations to take into account when looking at men’s and women’s wages to investigate any gender-based differences.  Sheer earnings numbers are meaningful—after all, a difference in earnings, no matter why it exists, means a difference in what men and women are able to […]

The financial crisis and its aftereffects had a significant impact on American’s incomes. But the slow income growth that continued after the recession ended has also increased public awareness that income stagnation is a national problem that pre-dates the financial crisis and extends back into the late 1970s. Between 1950 and 1975, the U.S. median […]

Most people probably know that the non-English speaking population in the U.S. is increasing. Only last month the Instituto Cervantes announced that the U.S. now has more Spanish speakers than any other country in the world aside from Mexico. This trend is perhaps best illustrated by public school students who are enrolled in English as […]

Religion, race, ethnicity, citizenship, and ancestry are just some of the characteristics used by people to identify themselves, to be part of a bigger community, and to enhance social cohesion. Language plays an important role in this mix. It provides a medium to communicate, carries its own cultural identity, and, like most other social identifiers, […]

Most of Dickenson County‘s residents live along the many river valleys that flow down into the Russell Fork which cuts through Virginia’s Cumberland Mountains to create the largest gorge east of the Mississippi. Yet despite its many scenic attractions and the bonus of a low cost of living, Dickenson has been steadily shedding its population, […]

In my last post, I began a series focused on the gender wage gap, and discussed why demonstrating its existence is not always a simple proposition.  Most importantly, I argued, it is not enough to simply look at the difference between men’s and women’s median wages.  Not only do these estimates tell us less than we […]

Farming has a semi-mythological status unlike any other industry or occupation. In few places is this more true than Virginia, which was founded on farming and particularly tobacco farming. For much of Virginia’s history, its population was shaped by agriculture. Most early Virginians came to the state as either indentured servants or slaves to work […]

A couple of weeks back, I attended the 2015 ACS Data Users Conference and heard a lot of concerned researchers discussing the impact of losing the 3-year estimates from the American Community Survey. In the past, the Census Bureau provided separate 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year estimates – but funding constraints have resulted in the discontinuation […]