Nearly 4.2 million people worked at home in 2000, according to Census 2000 tabulations, up from 3.4 million in 1990, the Census Bureau reported today. This 23 percent increase in home-based workers age 16 and older was double the growth in the overall work force during the decade.

    The data released today include information on home-based workers by age, sex, educational attainment, race and Hispanic origin, industry, occupation, disability status and earnings at the national and state levels. More recent estimates from the American Community Survey (ACS) <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/> show 4.5 million people worked at home in 2003.

    The Census 2000 estimates represent people who reported that they usually worked at home. “Usually” was defined to mean most days during the week. People who worked at home part of the week, but elsewhere more days than at home, were not counted as at-home workers. Thus, the census estimates may be lower than other estimates that count at-home workers differently.

    The data contained in the tables are based on responses from a sample of households who received the census long form. Nationally, about 1-in-6 households were included in the Census 2000 sample. The data are subject to sampling and nonsampling errors.

    The Census Bureau cautions against confusing the census estimates with estimates from the ACS. Estimates may differ because of different questions, survey concepts, data processing and estimation methods. For further information, see <http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf > for Census 2000 sample data and <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/> for ACS data.

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