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Census: Income fell, poverty increased in 2022

Sep 12, 2023
The expiration of pandemic-era government benefits is partially responsible for the increases in poverty.
Above, a food pantry, in Queens, New York. With pandemic-era benefits ending, post-tax real incomes fell 14% for the lowest earners in the U.S. in 2022.
Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images

Census undercount of Black, brown communities could ripple through economy

Apr 6, 2022
The bureau thinks it missed 3% of African Americans, 5% of Hispanics and 6% of Alaska Natives and Native Americans living on reservations.
The undercount of communities of color can influence political redistricting and the distribution of federal dollars.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Census Bureau to add business startups as an official statistic

Nov 10, 2021
The fast-moving nature of the pandemic demands new measurements that are more timely.
Business startups have surged during the pandemic. The Census Bureau is making permanent a new monthly metric for business formations.
mixetto via Getty Images

Government support credited with decline in poverty in 2020

Sep 14, 2021
The Census Bureau's supplemental poverty measure showed a big decline from 2019, despite a year of pandemic-induced economic disruption.
Pandemic relief helped more Americans stay out of poverty in 2020, but future poverty rates depend on what happens with the pandemic economy.
Alex Wong via Getty Images

Latest census data finds population growth in metro areas

Aug 13, 2021
But how accurate are the figures, collected as the pandemic started, when some people began to relocate?
Phoenix grew at a faster rate in the last decade than any other major metropolitan city in the U.S., new census data shows.
Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images

Every number is the story of what's counted, and what's not

Oct 12, 2020
In this book excerpt, Deborah Stone examines the way we calculate unemployment numbers.
Demonstrators rally at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., in 2019.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Census finds nearly 30 million people didn't have health insurance in 2019

Sep 16, 2020
With COVID-19-related job losses, health experts expect the number of people without insurance to grow this year.
A man has his temperature checked at a COVID-19 testing site in Long Beach, California. The number of Americans without health insurance is expected to go up this year.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

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Is it too late to fill out your 2020 census?

Jun 2, 2020
You now have until mid-August to respond to the census if you haven't yet.
The federal government will use census data to distribute almost a trillion dollars in grants and loans.
Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images

Tracing the history of the census, at a time when 2020 operations are suspended

The 2020 census was planning to deploy up to 500,000 census takers to follow up with households that didn't respond online or by mail.
The U.S. Census Bureau announced that it has suspended census field operations for now over concerns of the census workers and their public interactions amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Using familiar faces could eventually open Detroit’s doors for census takers

Mar 25, 2020
The bureau is using workers people know or can identify with for house calls.
Detroit has a large Muslim population, and some imams have been stressing just how much federal funding depends on them taking the census. Above, a billboard advertising the 2020 Census in Arabic.
Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images