The US Census Bureau thread

[JManc]

Originally Posted by N90

It's already recovered, its job growth now only trails LA, NYC, and DFW. I think HOUs population growth numbers will dip again in 2018 because of Harvey but 2019 and beyond should be a return back to normalcy for HOU 120k. HOU is still gonna add the same amount or more people this decade than last decade.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/metro.t03.htm

I don't know about recovered but the worst is certainly behind it. Hiring really hasn't picked up though compared to where it was before this all started.

[toddguy]

Originally Posted by muertecaza

These are CSAs for those that have them, and then MSAs for those that don't, yes? No real opinion about whether that's good or bad, just wanted to make sure I know what I'm reading.

The Columbus CSA dropped in numerical growth because several counties were added between 2000 and 2010 so that skews the numbers by creating an artificial boost in that decade.

Probably the same for others as well.

[Yuri]

^^
It's not the case. The list is made with fixed borders.

[BG918]

Originally Posted by N90

It's already recovered, its job growth now only trails LA, NYC, and DFW. I think HOUs population growth numbers will dip again in 2018 because of Harvey but 2019 and beyond should be a return back to normalcy for HOU 120k. HOU is still gonna add the same amount or more people this decade than last decade.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/metro.t03.htm

The same thing is happening in OKC and Tulsa. After a dip for the past two years growth will likely pick back up due to improving oil and gas prices which are big drivers of the economy in those cities like in Houston. It also could explain part of Denver's dip in population growth (coupled with rapidly rising housing costs).

[Docere]

Looks like they're merging the race and ancestry together:

https://www2.census.gov/library/publ...s-2020-acs.pdf

What is this persons race?

Check boxes:

[ ] White - Print, for example, German, Irish, English, Italian, Lebanese, Egyptian [___________]
[ ] Black or African Am. - Print, for example, African American, Jamaican, Haitian, Nigerian, Ethiopian, Somali, etc. [__________]
[ ] American Indian or Alaska Native - Print name of enrolled or principle tribe(s), for example, Navajo Nation, Blackfeet Tribe, Mayan, Aztec, Native Village of Barrow Inupiat Traditional Government, Nome Eskimo Community, etc. [___________]
[ ] Chinese
[ ] Filipino
[ ] Asian Indian
[ ] Vietnamese
[ ] Korean
[ ] Japanese
[ ] Other Asian, Print, for example, Pakistani, Cambodian, Hmong, etc. [___________]
[ ] Native Hawaiian
[ ] Samoan
[ ] Chamorro
[ ] Other Pacific Islander. Print, for example, Tongan, Fijian, Marshallese, etc. [_________]
[ ] Some Other Race. Print race or origin. [________________]

[dave8721]

What if I'm Italian, German, Greek, English, Irish (thats just going as far back as grandparents)?

[Docere]

Yeah, I'm not sure. Most white Americans have multiple ancestries. It seems weird to combine them together.

Also although German ancestry is very common in the US, it's very unusual for an American of German ancestry to say they are German. This questioning sort of implies that people do identify as such.

[Steely Dan]

The last time I filled out a census form (2010), when they asked me about my race/ethnicity, I checked the "other" box and wrote in "chicagoan".

6th generation...... it makes more sense than any other classification.

The next time I fill out a census form (2020), there will be four of us "chicagoans"; two of them are 7th generation (I'm jealous).

[toddguy]

Originally Posted by yuriandrade

^^
It's not the case. The list is made with fixed borders.

So the 2000 figures represent the counties that were added after that? Ok then my mistake. Interesting list also.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by Docere

Yeah, I'm not sure. Most white Americans have multiple ancestries. It seems weird to combine them together.

Also although German ancestry is very common in the US, it's very unusual for an American of German ancestry to say they are German. This questioning sort of implies that people do identify as such.

That's a flaw to pretty much all of these "what are you" types of questionnaires -- not making the distinction between simply knowledge of ancestries and how people self-identify.

Only I guess African-American is clearly distinguished from other African ancestries, but there's no way to tell if German means "American who has ancestors from Germany in the 1800s" versus "Someone who moved from Germany 10 years ago".

Why not actually just have write-in options for ancestry without stacking the deck in pre-set "race" or "ethnicity" categories?

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by Docere

Looks like they're merging the race and ancestry together:

Interesting how a lot of English-speaking countries (the US, Canada, the UK) have "race" questions or boxes (that are often distinct from ancestry questions), but then also ask ancestry elsewhere worded differently (so you can get the same responses in the race as well as the ancestry forms counted again; eg. Japanese). I realize it has to do with a lot of history and politics behind racial categorization through the decades and the centuries.

[Capsicum]

There's also that controversy in the news regarding citizenship status asked on the census.

As a Canadian living in the US, I actually found it pretty surprising that the census doesn't ask citizenship to begin with -- I would have assumed that's something pretty common to ask for a country's residents.

[Docere]

How is say a Jewish person with roots in Poland supposed to answer this question?

Bernie Sanders actually got some criticism among some American Jews for describing himself as "the son of a Polish immigrant" in some of his campaign materials.

It's one thing to say, "my ancestors came from Poland" (which you can sort of do on the ancestry form) but quite another form a Jewish person to say "I am Polish."

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by Docere

How is say a Jewish person with roots in Poland supposed to answer this question?

Bernie Sanders actually got some criticism among some American Jews for describing himself as "the son of a Polish immigrant" in some of his campaign materials.

It's one thing to say, "my ancestors came from Poland" (which you can sort of do on the ancestry form) but quite another form a Jewish person to say "I am Polish."

The Census won't accept "Ashkenazic Jewish" as an ancestry?

[Docere]

No because Jewish is a religion and thus declared invalid. I don't know what the Census Bureau does with "Ashkenazi" (if anyone writes that it in at all). Probably lumps it with "other."

[Capsicum]

What does it do for those who write in a Jewish identity with a geographical identity attached -- eg. if they say they're "Polish Jews", they get lumped in with people who write "Polish", if they're "Lithuanian Jews", they're lumped in with "Lithuanians"?, or "Persian Jews" with "Persians" etc.

That might inflate numbers for some European ancestries.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by Docere

It's one thing to say, "my ancestors came from Poland" (which you can sort of do on the ancestry form) but quite another form a Jewish person to say "I am Polish."

How do you do that -- write in an ancestral place without saying you belong to its main or majority ethnic group?

[Docere]

It isn't really clear whether ancestry means ethnicity or geographic origin, especially with changing boundaries over time.

What about ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe? I assume people with that ancestry would write in German, because they retained a distinct German identity there and didn't assimilate into the local population. But if their ancestors were from Austria, they might identify as Austrian since Austria is a German-speaking country.

Does someone with Alsatian roots whose ancestors came in the late 19th century write French or German?

Is John Kerry "Czech" or "Austrian"?

[Capsicum]

Combining ancestry and race is also problematic any time the name of an ethnicity and national origin doesn't mean the same thing, even for the newer non-European groups.

Imagine a 3rd generation Londoner or Parisian of Caribbean roots, who moves to New York city, who identifies as "Black British" or "French". Imagine he checks the "Black or African American" box and writes in "British" or "French". Is this going to be accepted by the coder since "British" or "French" are only options under the white box?

Similarly, "Jamaican" is listed as a subset of ancestry under the black category, but what if a Chinese Jamaican writes in "Jamaican" and checks "other Asian", interpreting "Chinese" as meaning "from China"?

[Capsicum]

How about (non-Latino) New World identities without race descriptor?

How is Canadian (let's say without any descriptor, like "French" in front of it) coded?
How is Australian coded?
South African?