EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EST, FEBRUARY 15, 2002 (FRIDAY)
Robert Bernstein CB02-22
Public Information Office
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e-mail: pio@census.gov Radio sound bites
Census Bureau Report Offers an Array of
Facts about America's People
Did you know that young women in the United States are more educated
than young men? That the majority of children now have access to a
computer both at home and at school? Or that people who move long
distances are five times more likely to do so for a work-related reason
than those who move short distances?
These are some of the facts contained in an Internet-only report
released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau titled
The Population Profile of the United States: 2000 (Internet Release).
Using previously released data, the report profiles the country's
demographic, socioeconomic and housing trends.
While emphasizing the final decade of the century, the report contains
data for the past 100 years and reflects the most recent information on
each topic as of October 2001. The primary source of the data is the
Current Population Survey; a limited amount come from the Survey of Income
and Program Participation and the American Housing Survey. Many of the
chapters have statistics from more than one source.
Additional highlights:
- The 33 million people added to the U.S. population between 1990 and
2000 is the largest census-to-census increase ever. The 1990s was also the
only decade of the 20th century when every state gained population.
- Between 1999 and 2000, 1.7 million people moved into the United States
from abroad; two-thirds of these movers were foreign-born and not U.S.
citizens.
- In 2000, only 11 percent of women at the end of their childbearing
years had four or more children, compared with more than three times that
percentage in 1976.
- The "traditional" family (married couple with children under 18) has
become much less prevalent in recent decades; the proportion of these
families fell from 40 percent of all households in 1970 to 24 percent in
2000.
- After five consecutive years of annual increases, real median
household income did not change significantly between 1999 and 2000.
- The number of students enrolled in elementary school and high school
in 2000 (49 million) matched the previous record set in 1970 when "baby
boom" children attended school.
- For the first time ever, computers in 2000 were found in a majority
of the country's homes (51 percent). In 1998, the rate was 42 percent.
- In the three years, from 1997-2000, the proportion of households
with Internet access more than doubled, from 18 percent to 42 percent.
- While 12 percent of people native to the United States and 16
percent of naturalized citizens lacked health insurance during all of
2000, 41 percent of noncitizens were uninsured.
- In 2000, a ratio of 1-in-5 school-age children had at least one
foreign-born parent.
"The Census Bureau has been producing the Population Profile
since 1974," said report editor and senior author Judith Waldrop, "and
throughout its history, generally, it has been issued only biennially and
in printed form. In an attempt to make these data available to the public
on a more frequent basis without increasing costs, the report will now be
issued annually, with both a printed report and an Internet version every
two years and an Internet-only version the other years. This is the first
Internet-only version."
Although data in the report are summarized mostly at the national level,
some data also are provided for states.
Each of the report's 20 chapters presents analysis and graphics.
Subjects covered are: population distribution; geographic mobility;
fertility; households, families, marital status and living arrangements;
the living arrangements of children; housing; school enrollment;
educational attainment; computer use; voting and registration; income;
poverty; meeting basic needs; health insurance coverage; race and
ethnicity; the foreign-born; older adults; people with disabilities; and
the demographics of women and men.
The chapter comparing women and men is new and most of the remaining
chapters have been updated or expanded from the previous printed report.
As with all data from surveys, the estimates are subject to sampling
variability and other sources of error.
available free from Adobe.
