Census: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 CLICK below:

http://www.census.gov/population/www/pop-profile/profile2000.html

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.”

As with all data from surveys, the estimates are subject to sampling variability and other sources of error.