Research

The recent Supreme Court decision on the Voting Right Act will have wide repercussions, particularly for Virginia, a state which was previously held to the preclearance requirement that was just struck down on Tuesday.For those who are unfamiliar with the act, one of the key provisions for deterring and preventing racial discrimination at the polls […]

As Becky explained in her recent post, last month’s Pew report, Breadwinner Moms, finds that, in 2011, forty percent of American households with children under the age of 18 had the mother as the primary or sole earner.  The report goes on to parse this number, indicating that, of this population, about one-third are married […]

“A record 40% of all households with children under the age of 18 include mothers who are either the sole or primary source of income for the family.” – Executive Summary, “Breadwinner Moms”“Breadwinner Moms,” a recently released report from Pew Social & Demographic Trends, suggests, on its face, that gender equality in the labor force […]

The recent release of the Census Bureau’s Voting and Registration data from the Current Population Survey finally allows us to look deeper into the population that turned out to vote this last November.  And the results are quite astonishing.For the first time, in a long history of disenfranchisement and suppression, African-American voter turnout surpassed the turnout […]

Common sense tells us that the cost of goods and services are different in different parts of the country.  For instance, the economic reality and expenditures of families living in Northern Virginia are not the same as those living in Lynchburg or those living in Wise County.  The cost of housing and rent is particularly […]

How many of us are poor? Answering that question is not as easy as one may think.  Yes, we do have an official poverty statistic that is produced by the U.S. Census Bureau, but nobody likes it.  Many on the Left think it is too low, failing to capture the full array of expenses that families face.  Folks […]

The sluggish economic recovery and changes to participation guidelines have led to a steady increase in the number of individuals relying on food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). In January 2013, 47.3 million Americans, or 15% of the total population, received food stamps (Nearly 50 million Americans are living in poverty, according to […]

In 2010, more than one-third of American adults ages 20-74 were obese, and another third were overweight. Even though I was well aware of the growing “obesity epidemic,” watching the steady, seemingly inexorable, increase in obesity rates between 1985-2010 came as a nearly physical shock.This map, built on data from the Center for Disease Control’s […]

By popular demand, I’m attaching dot density maps for more Virginia cities plus a new statewide map…enjoy: Virginia 2010 Fredericksburg City 2010 Richmond-Pertersburg Metro Area 2010 Martinsville 2010 Lynchburg City 2010 Harrisonburg City 2010 Staunton-Waynesboro 2010 Roanoke-Salem 2010 Plus the ones from the previous post: Northern Virginia 2010 Charlottesville City 2010 Winchester City 2010 Hampton Roads […]

For the new, interactive, Racial Dot Map project visit HERE. The dot density map of U.S., Canadian, and Mexico census data by MIT’s Media Lab got a lot of attention…so we decided to give it a try ourselves, taking a deeper look into census data for Virginia’s major urban centers and smaller cities. All of […]