Who Owns an E-reader?

Twelve percent of Americans aged 18 or older owned an e-reader in May 2011-- double the 6 percent measured six months earlier. E-reader ownership is highest among households with incomes of $75,000-plus (24 percent), college graduates (22 percent), parents with children under age 18 at home (16 percent), and people under age 65 (10 to 14 percent).

A smaller 8 percent of adults own a tablet computer (such as an iPad), and 3 percent own both.

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, E-reader Ownership Doubles in Six Months

A Recession's Deathly Hangover

"An individual who is born in a recession and who survives until age 40 lives around 11 months shorter than an otherwise identical individual born in a boom because the risk of CV [cardiovascular mortality] is lower [for those born during boom times]."

Source: "Being Born Under Adverse Economic Conditions Leads to a Higher Cardiovascular Mortality Rate Later in Life: Evidence Based on Individuals Born at Different Stages of the Business Cycle," Gerard J. van den Berg, Gabriele Doblhammer-Reiter, Kaare Christensen, Demography, Volume 48, No. 2, May 2011

Chinese Americans

Of the 15 million Americans who identify themselves as Asian, the largest share (23%) are Chinese.

Source: Census Bureau, 2010 census

Really?

The Undereducated American, a new report from Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce, argues that demand for college-educated workers is outpacing supply. The mismatch has resulted in growing income inequality between college-educated and high school-educated workers. The wage gap was 74 percent in 2010 and will rise to 96 percent by 2025 unless 20 million additional college-educated workers are added to the labor force.  

Cheap Clothes

Yearly spending by the average household on women's clothes: $561.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey

Census Bureau to Release Same-Sex Couple File

We are about to know a whole lot more about the nation's same-sex couples. Later this year, the Census Bureau will release the Same-sex Couple Households Summary File from the 2010 census, providing detailed geographical information on the number of same-sex couples as well as their marital status and other demographic characteristics.

The Census Bureau has been struggling almost as much as the nation's politicians with the issue of same-sex couples. In the Current Population Survey until 2010, according to bureau employees Daphne Lofquist and Renee Ellis, same-sex couples who reported that they were married were recoded as opposite-sex married couples. In 2010, the bureau changed the editing procedure and recoded them as same-sex unmarried partners. Now that the second largest state in the nation has legalized gay marriage, the editing procedure will have to change again.

The Census Bureau has been collecting information on same-sex couple households through the American Community Survey since 2005. The latest data, from 2009, counted 581,300 households in the United States headed by same-sex spouses or partners. This compares with 5,920,821 households headed by unmarried opposite-sex partners, and 55,811,477 headed by opposite-sex married couples.

Source: Census Bureau, Families and Living Arrangements data, scroll down to the Same-Sex Couples section.

Hispanic Workers

Hispanics account for 14 percent of the U.S. labor force, but in these occupations they are least 40 percent of the labor force...

Maids and housekeepers
Grounds maintenance workers
Graders, agricultural products
Agricultural laborers
Cement masons
Construction laborers
Drywall installers
Painters
Roofers
Construction helpers
Sewing machine operators
Packaging and filling machine operators
Packers and packagers, hand

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Decline in Private Health Insurance

Percentage of people aged 18 to 64 who have private health insurance coverage...

2000: 74%
2010: 64%

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Early Release of Selected Estimates Based on Data from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey

The Rich Want the Rich to Pay More Taxes

Percentage of people with incomes of $100,000 or more who want to raise taxes on people with incomes of $100,000 or more: 55%.

Source: World Public Opinion, Program for Public Consultation, Does the Majority Want to Tyrannize the Minority?

Adult Children in the Home

The Census Bureau is now releasing 2010 census data on a state-by-state basis revealing, among other things, those all-important household relationships. Data for 12 states have been released so far, including the nation's most populous state, California. This morning's Los Angeles Times ran a front-page story about how nontraditional households in California--such as households headed by unmarried partners--are growing.

The Times missed the bigger story: the doubling in the percentage of adults living in a very traditional way--with their parents.

Buried in the 2010 census table QT-P12, and requiring a minor calculation to determine the result, is this astounding fact: 9.5 percent of California's household population are adult children living with their parents. If you add in adults living in the home of a grandparent, the figure rises to a full 10 percent. Ten percent!

Adults who live with a parent (or grandparent) is the 4th most common household relationship in California after householder (35 percent), spouse of householder (17 percent), and child of householder under age 18 (22 percent). It far surpasses the percentage of people who are unmarried partners (2 percent).

That's not all. The percentage of people who are adult children of the householder has more than doubled since 2000. The number of adults in California who live with their parents grew from 1.5 million in 2000 to 3.5 million in 2010.

In Search of Financial Stability

Percentage of Americans who say financial stability is more important to them than moving up the income ladder: 85%.

Source: Economic Mobility Project, Poll 2011

Time Use 2010

Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics released findings from the 2010 American Time Use Survey. This ongoing survey of what Americans aged 15 or older did during the past 24 hours, minute by minute, provides an invaluable perspective for businesses trying to understand their customers. Here is one of the 2010 findings:

Percentage of employed people who work on an average...
Weekday: 82%
Weekend day: 35%

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010 American Time Use Survey

Married Couples as an Index of Economic Wellbeing

If married couples are an index of economic wellbeing--and I would argue that they are--then the index is trending down. According to 2010 census results, married couples head only 48 percent of the nation's households, down from 52 percent in 2000. The percentage of households headed by married couples with children under age 18 fell to 20 percent in 2010, down from 24 percent in 2000.

To put these numbers into perspective, back in the Good Old Days of 1957, fully 76 percent of the nation's households were headed by married couples. Nearly half--45 percent--were headed by married couples with children under age 18.

The urban activist and philosopher Jane Jacobs writes that nuclear families (the basic biological unit of society) and households (the basic economic unit of society) are often synonymous when times are good. But when times are tough, households "are more adaptable and resilient than families when subjected to stresses and jolts, while at the same time maintaining their elementary functions...Households, adaptable as they are, take over functions that families are at a loss to fill." (Dark Age Ahead, pages 50-51).

In other words, households and nuclear families decouple during hard times. This looks like decoupling to me:

2010 Census: Households by Type (numbers in 000s)

	number	percent
Total households	116,716	100.0
Married couples	56,510	48.4
With children <18	23,588	20.2
Female family hh	15,250	13.1
Male family hh	5,778	5.0
Nonfamily hh	39,178	33.6
Living alone	31,205	26.7
Other	7,973	6.8

Who Earns the Most?

Surgeons had the highest earnings in 2010, a median of $325,000.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey

Constitutional Generation Gap

Percentage of people who think the Supreme Court should base its rulings on its understanding of what the Constitution means in current times or its understanding of what the Constitution meant as originally written, by age...

	current	original
Total:	50	45
18 to 29:	62	34
30 to 49:	54	41
50 to 64:	44	51
65-plus:	35	58

Source: Pew Research Center, Ideological Chasm Over Interpreting Constitution

No Retirement Plan

Percentage of workers who are offered a workplace retirement savings plan: 46%.

Source: EBRI, 2011 Retirement Confidence Survey

Not My President

Percentage of Americans who would not vote for the following for president...

Atheist: 49%
Gay or lesbian: 32%
Hispanic: 10%
Woman: 6%
Black: 5%

Source: Gallup

Asleep and Awake

At 3:00 a.m. the largest percentage of people are asleep: 94.7%.
At 6:00 p.m. the smallest percentage of people are asleep: 2.6%.

Source: American Time Use Survey

How Clean is Your House?

When General Social Survey interviewers were asked to rate the interior cleanliness of the homes of a nationally representative sample of Americans, this is what they saw...

Very clean: 49%
Clean: 30%
So-so: 14%
Not very clean: 4%
Dirty: 3%

Source: General Social Survey

Alcohol-Related Arrests

Twenty-three percent of all arrests in the United States are alcohol-related (driving under the influence, liquor law violations, drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and vagrancy). The share of arrests that are alcohol related ranges from a low of 9 percent in Florida to a high of 46 percent in South Dakota.

Source: Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics

Why the Housing Market is (Still) Collapsing

Last week the federal government proposed stricter limits on mortgage lending. For anyone over the age of 50, the new rules sound a lot like the old rules: a 20 percent down payment to get the best mortgage rate, and total debt payments not to exceed 36 percent of household income. The new regulations will be good for the housing market of the future. Unfortunately, they will further destabilize the structurally unsound housing market of today.    

A little bit of history. Beginning in the mid 1990s, the United States experienced a unique confluence of events: a housing market that was growing because of the aging of the baby-boom generation into the peak home-buying age groups and relaxed mortgage lending rules. If only the regulators had let well enough alone and allowed boomer demand to drive homeownership to historic heights. But that wasn't good enough for some, so the market was juiced with easy credit. Kaboom! Homeownership rates and housing prices soared, creating a housing market with the structural integrity of Tinkertoys. It was bound to collapse and it did. But, like a game of Angry Birds, the collapse is not yet complete. A greatly weakened housing market is straining to stand but destined to fall because of the demographics. To be blunt, there is no good news for housing in the demographic trends. Let's examine them generation by generation.

Millennials: Not Buying. The large millennial generation has now filled the 30-to-34 age group, when homeownership becomes the norm. If housing had not been juiced with easy credit, millennials would be buying homes and stabilizing the market. But falling prices, unemployment, and job insecurity are driving them away, undermining the foundation of housing. According to the Census Bureau's latest geographic mobility report, the number of people who moved because they wanted to own rather than rent fell by a whopping 53 percent during the past five years--from 3.7 million in 2004-05 to 1.7 million in 2009-10. Between 2004 (the year the homeownership rate peaked) and 2010, the homeownership rate of householders aged 30 to 34 declined more than any other--down 5.8 percentage points to 51.6 percent. The rate is still falling. As of the first quarter of 2011, only 50.3 percent owned a home. Even if they want to buy, bigger down payment requirements and student loans (37 percent of householders under age 35 have student loans) will prevent many from getting a mortgage.

Generation X: Underwater. No one has been hurt more by the housing crisis than Gen Xers. They were most likely to buy homes when prices were peaking, and they are most likely to be underwater today. According to a Pew survey, 21 percent of homeowners with a mortgage were underwater in 2010. The percentage was 25 percent among 30-to-49-year-olds. With housing prices continuing to decline, the number who are underwater is growing. Trapped in their expensive homes, the mortgage interest payments of householders aged 35 to 44 are an astounding 66 percent above average, according to the Consumer Expenditure Survey. This generation will not be moving up, another lethal crack in the structure of today's housing market. 

Boomers: Downsizing. Each year 2 million homeowners aged 45 to 64 move, joining the growing ranks of Americans who are losing money on their biggest investment. According to Zillow, 37 percent of homes sold in April 2011 went for less than their purchase price, not to mention the target price boomers had in mind when they planned their empty-nest and retirement years. Those movers may be the lucky ones, able to unload their white elephants ahead of the crowd as their peers create an increasingly top heavy and unstable housing market. According to the 2010 Del Web Baby Boomer Survey, 42 percent of 50-year-olds and 32 percent of 64-year-olds plan to move when they retire. Many will have to change their plans.  

Older Americans: Indebted. Once upon a time, it was the norm for older Americans to be debt free. Today, millions of householders aged 65 or older are in debt. Twenty-seven percent of homeowners aged 65 or older had a mortgage in 2009, according to the American Housing Survey, up from 18 percent ten years earlier. The Survey of Consumer Finances finds fully 62 percent of householders aged 65 to 74 having debt (including mortgage and other types of debt), owing a median of $48,100. The debtors probably planned at one time to sell their house and pay off their obligations. Oops! Now their wealth is frozen, creating financial hardship and threatening the inheritance of the next generation--another crack in the structure of the housing market.  

Like I said, there is no good news for housing in the demographic trends. 

For much more about homeowners, renters, and the housing market, see the all new 3rd edition of Americans and Their Homes. 

Facebook Friends

The average Facebook user has 229 friends. The largest percentage of friends (22 percent) are people from high school.

Source: Pew, Social Networking Sites and Our Lives

Births in 2010: 4,007,000

The number of births in 2010 barely topped 4 million, according to a preliminary estimate released today by the National Center for Health Statistics. That's 3 percent less than in 2009 and 7 percent below the all-time high of 4,316,233 reached in 2007. It is the smallest number of births since 1999.

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Recent Trends in Births and Fertility Rates Through 2010

Worries at Record High

The percentage of Americans who are worried about being able to maintain their current standard of living is at an all-time high of 58%.

Source: Gallup

Caring for Parents

Percentage of people aged 50 or older who provide basic care for their aged parents...

men: 17%
women: 28%

Note: Basic care is defined as at least 100 hours of help in the past two years with personal care activities such as dressing, bathing, and feeding.
Source: MetLife Mature Market Institute, The MetLife Study of Caregiving Costs to Working Caregivers

Most Small Businesses Are Home-Based

Among the nation's small businesses, the 52 percent majority operate primarily out of someone's home, according to newly released data from the 2007 Survey of Business Owners.

Yes, the survey is laughably dated, taken just before the Great Recession hit. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note the dominance of home-based businesses in the nation's small business milieu. It explains why the 2009 American Housing Survey found a room used for business in 31 percent of all households in the United States.

Fifty-seven percent of home-based businesses had annual receipts below $25,000. Only 7 percent reported any e-commerce sales.

Political IQ

When asked which party currently controls the House of Representatives, only 38 percent of American aged 18 or older correctly identify the Republican Party. Here are the numbers by age...

18 to 29:  26%
30 to 49:  36%
50-plus:  44%

Source: Pew Research Center

The Two-Income Difference

Median income of married couples...

Wife is in the labor force: $85,948
Wife is not in the labor force: $47,649

Source: Census Bureau

401(k): Tax Shelter or Retirement Plan?

The findings of a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (The Drawdown of Personal Retirement Assets, Working Paper 16675) suggest that defined-contribution retirement plans such as 401(k)s may be more of a tax shelter for the well-off than a serious way for the average worker to save for retirement.

In a typical year, only 17 percent of householders aged 60 to 69 with a personal retirement account--i.e. a 401(k)--withdrew any money from the account. Just 17 percent! Apparently, most households with personal retirement accounts do not need the money to pay the bills. The study found that withdrawals from these accounts do not become common until they become mandatory at age 70.5. "The sharp increase in withdrawals when distributions become mandatory suggests that many households in their early 70s would not make withdrawals if it were not for the distribution rules," say the authors of the study.

Employee Benefits Survey data show that only 9 percent of workers with wages in the bottom 10 percentile of the wage distribution participate in defined-contribution retirement plans. Among workers with wages in the top 10 percentile, the 54 percent majority participate.

Where Do the French Go on Vacation?

Glad you asked. Thanks to a study by Eurobarometer, the survey arm of the European Commission, we know the answer. Among the French who plan to take a vacation in 2011, the 57 percent majority say they will spend their main vacation in France. A distant second in popularity is Spain (6 percent), followed by Italy (3 percent).

What do the Italians say? Seventy-one percent say they will spend their main holiday in Italy. France is their second choice (4 percent), followed by Spain (4 percent).

You can get this information for 32 European countries here (click on Survey on the Attitudes of Europeans towards Tourism).

Wouldn't it be nice to have this kind of information for each state in the United States? How many people in New York plan to vacation in Florida? How many from South Carolina will vacation in North Carolina? Yes, it would be nice.

Most Pay Credit Cards in Full

The 54% majority of Americans say they always pay their credit cards in full each month. Here are the numbers by age...

18 to 29: 51%
30 to 44: 45%
45 to 59: 44%
60-plus: 75%

Source: Americans' Financial Capability, NBER Working Paper 17103, $5

And the Winner Is...Guns

Question: "Which do you think is most important--to protect the right of Americans to own guns, or to control gun ownership?"

Protect the right of Americans to own guns
2011: 48%
2000: 29%

Control gun ownership
2011: 47%
2000: 66%

Source: Pew Research Center polls, reported in Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics

Saving for College

Percentage of Americans with dependent children who have set aside money for their children's college education: 41%.

Source: Americans' Financial Capability, NBER Working Paper 17103 ($5)

Bathroom Dangers

You've probably heard the rumor that bathrooms are the most dangerous room in the house. How dangerous are they? Inquiring minds want to know.

According to a CDC survey of emergency room visits, 234,094 people aged 15 or older were injured (unintentionally and nonfatally) in a bathroom in 2008--or just 1 percent of the 22 million injuries that year. Sixty-four percent of the injured were female, 63 percent were aged 45 or older, 81 percent were injured because of a fall, and 68 percent were hurt in the bathtub or shower. Only 23 percent were injured while on the toilet.

Source: CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Nonfatal Bathroom Injuries among Persons Aged ≥ 15 Years--United States 2008

Renters and Cell Phones

Percentage of adults living in wireless-only households by homeownership status...

Renters: 50.3%
Owners: 17.7%

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Wireless Substitution: Early Release of Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, July-December 2010

Fewer Moving into Homeownership

Number of people who moved to become homeowners...

2009-10: 1.7 million
2004-05: 3.7 million

Source: Census Bureau, Geographic Mobility

Decline in Good Health

The self-reported health of working-age Americans has been trending downward for years, according to data collected by the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The 2010 data, released today, continues to show the downward slide in the percentage of prime working-age adults who say their health is "very good" or "excellent." The biggest decline has been among 25-to-34-year-olds, a 4.2 percentage point decline over the past 10 years...

Percent reporting their health as very good or excellent:

	2010	2000	change
Total	54.6	56.2	-1.6
18 to 24	62.6	62.8	-0.2
25 to 34	62.9	67.1	-4.2
35 to 44	60.0	63.2	-3.2
45 to 54	54.4	56.4	-2.0
55 to 64	51.6	49.1	2.5
65 or older	40.7	36.2	4.5

Source: CDC, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Prevalence and Trends Data

Americans Not Saving for a Rainy Day

Disturbing results from the 2009 National Financial Capability Study: Only 49 percent of Americans have an emergency or "rainy day" fund--an amount of money set aside that could cover three months of expenses if they get sick or lose their job.

Even more worrisome, a strikingly large percentage of Americans are likely to need a rainy day fund, according to the NBER report on the survey's findings (Americans' Financial Capability, NBER Working Paper 17103, $5). The percentage of Americans who had experienced a large decline in their income in the past 12 months ranged from 33 percent among those with a rainy day fund to 40 percent of respondents without a fund. Those are big numbers, and they reveal the vulnerability of many Americans to financial shocks.

The percentage with a rainy day fund ranges from a low of 31 percent among 18-to-29-year-olds, climbs to about 50 percent among 30-to-59-year-olds, and peaks at 64 percent among people aged 60 or older.

Unsustainable Costs

Percent change in the amount employees must contribute for private health insurance by type of coverage, 2001 to 2009...

Family: +99.5%
(from $1,741 to $3,474)

Individual: +92.2%
(from $498 to $957)

Employee plus one: +120.8%
(from $1,070 to $2,363)

Note: All figures are in current dollars, not adjusted for inflation.
Source: Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, Statistical Brief #325, Changes in Premiums and Employee Contributions for Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance, Private Industry, 2001-2009

Sexual Identity of High School Students

In a survey of the sexual identity and behavior of high school students, the Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System has released the following findings on the sexual identity of students in grades 9 through 12...

Heterosexual: 93.0%
Gay or lesbian: 1.3%
Bisexual: 3.7%
Not sure: 2.5%

Note: The survey asked high school students about their sexual identity in the states of Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont, and in the cities of Boston, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. Figures above are medians for the 9 reporting areas.
Source: CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Sexual Identity, Sex of Sexual Contacts, and Health-Risk Behaviors among Students in Grades 9-12--Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance, Selected Sites, United States, 2001-2009

Bet You Didn't Know

Percentage living in a metropolitan area, by race and Hispanic origin...

Asians: 97%
Hispanics: 93%
Blacks: 89%
Non-Hispanic whites: 80%

Source: 2010 Census

How Many Blog Posts Today?

This post makes it 1.7 million and one--worldwide, that is. So far today. Check out the Worldometer for the number of google searches performed today, tweets sent today, cell phones sold today, books published today, and so on. And in case you're wondering, there are 15,525 days left until the end of oil.

An Average Day: Snacking

On an average day, 90 percent of Americans aged 20 or older eat (or drink) a snack, with men consuming 586 calories and women consuming 421 calories. Thirty years ago, a smaller 59 percent of Americans snacked on an average day.

Source: USDA, Snacking Patterns of U.S. Adults (PDF)

Blacks Most Likely to Use Twitter

Percent of Internet users who use Twitter, by race and Hispanic origin...

Black: 25%
Hispanic: 19%
Non-Hispanic white: 9%

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, Twitter Update 2011

Oldest and Youngest in Congress

Year in which the oldest member of Congress was born: 1923.
Year in which the youngest member of Congress was born: 1981.

Source: Congressional Research Service, Membership of the 112th Congress: A Profile (PDF)

June 5, 1981

Thirty years ago this Sunday, the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published an article about five young men in Los Angeles who had been sickened by a type of pneumonia. This was the first scientific account of what would later be called human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. "The occurrence of pneumocystosis in these 5 previously healthy individuals without a clinically apparent underlying immunodeficiency is unusual," notes the report.

Since that day...
594,496 Americans have died of AIDS
1 million Americans and 33 million worldwide are living with HIV

Source: CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

Are We Done with Boom and Bust?

Baby, that is. A look at the numbers by age coming out of the 2010 census shows uniformity in the size of five-year age groups below the age of 40. The number of people in each five-year age group ranges from a low of 19,962,099 (30-to-34-year-olds) to a high of 22,040,343 (15-to-19-year-olds)--or a difference of 2.1 million. In percentage terms, this is a difference of just 10 percent.

In 2000, the difference between the largest and smallest age groups in the under-40 population was a much larger 3.7 million--or a difference of 20 percent.

For businesses, the new uniformity in the size of age groups means one less variable to consider in their marketing strategies. Unless, that is, we are in the early years of a new baby bust.

Source: Census Bureau

Fat Workers

A recent New York Times article reported on a study linking desk jobs to weight gain. Over the past half century or so, as American workers spent more of their day sitting at a desk, their weight increased. That's the theory.

Clearly, workers are doing much less physical labor than they once did--at least some workers. And there lies the problem with the theory. Hispanic men, who are the most physically active workers according to the CDC, are more likely than the average man to be overweight (78 versus 70 percent).

Confederate Flag Not Popular

Percentage of Americans who feel positive when they see the Confederate flag: 9%

Source: Pew Research Center

How Much Money?

How much money do parents give their adult children? How many adult children receive money from their parents? These questions are answered in a new study from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (An In-Depth Look Into Intergenerational Flows). Analyzing data from successive waves of the Health and Retirement Study (a longitudinal panel survey of older householders taken every two years since 1992), the researchers discovered substantial transfers of money from parents to adult children.

During each wave of the survey, approximately 20 percent of adult children living in another household received money from their parents, with $9,000 being the average amount received. Limiting the analysis to households that had participated in every wave of the survey, the researchers found that 61 percent of adult children had been given money by their parents at some point, receiving a total of $28,500.

The results show that parents give more to younger (adult) children and to children who are having financial trouble--such as those who have lost a job. These early parental transfers are "positively and significantly related with children's education and income class later in life," say the researchers.

American Public Thinks 25% Are Gay/Lesbian

Percentage who are gay/lesbian according to the American public: 25%.
Percentage who are gay/lesbian according to government surveys: 4%.

Source: Gallup and Sexual Behavior, Sexual Attraction, and Sexual Identity in the United States: Data from the 2006-2008 National Survey of Family Growth

Smartphone Ownership by Age

Percentage of people who own a smartphone by age...

12 to 17: 33%
18 to 24: 45%
25 to 34: 50%
35 to 44: 39%
45 to 54: 26%
55 to 64: 19%
65-plus: 6%

Source: Arbitron, The Infinite Dial 2011: Navigating Digital Platforms

Food Desert Locator

That's desert (empty wasteland), not dessert (yummy goodness). Yes, there are many, many food deserts in the United States--neighborhoods with high concentrations of low-income people who are far from a grocery store. At this site you can access an interactive map of the United States that reveals our many food deserts by state and local area down to the census tract level. A food desert is defined as a census tract in which at least one-third of the residents live more than one mile (in an urban area) or more than 10 miles (in a rural area) from a supermarket or large grocery store.

Source: USDA, Economic Research Service, Food Desert Locator

Why Crime is Down

Last week the FBI released its preliminary crime report for 2010, showing--once again--a decline in violent crime (murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault). The rate of violent crime today is lower than at any time since the early 1970s, and nobody can figure out why. With the large millennial generation now in the most crime-prone age group (40 percent of people arrested are aged 15 to 24) and unemployment stubbornly high, most believed crime would rise rather than fall.

Some say crime is down because so many criminals have been locked up. Others say crime is down because policing has become smarter and more effective. But the steep decline in crime throughout the United States begs for a deeper, sociological explanation.

This is what I think caused the decline in crime: helicopter parents. Yes, you can thank those obnoxious, overbearing parents because--over the past few decades--they have succeeded in transforming the teenage and young adult milieu. The rate of violent crime peaked in 1991. The young adults of that year were born in the late 1960s and early 1970s--just before the baby-boom generation became the nation's parents en masse. Boomers had fewer children and focused more on the success of each one, keeping their teenagers busy with supervised after-school activities. At age 18, they shipped them off to college where they spent their free time drinking and hooking up rather than hanging out on street corners. When they graduated from college into a job market that, by all accounts, should be turning the desperately unemployed into criminals, boomers welcomed them back into their homes and kept them out of trouble.

Surprise. The baby-boom generation managed to do something right.

The Mystery of Happiness

Surveys consistently show that Americans aged 65 or older are happier than younger adults. The 2010 General Social Survey, for example, found that 33 percent of people aged 65 or older were "very happy" compared with 28 percent of younger adults. The GSS measures happiness by asking a single, simple question. Other surveys probe people's feelings of happiness more extensively, by measuring it throughout the day and during a variety of activities. These studies confirm the greater happiness of older Americans. Why?

Entire books are devoted to this topic. One of them (Measuring the Subjective Well-Being of Nations: National Accounts of Time Use and Well-Being) solves the mystery.

To get at what makes people happy, well known Princeton economist Alan B. Krueger (the editor of the book) and author of one of the chapters (along with Daniel Kahneman, David Schkade, Norbert Schwarz, and Arthur A. Stone), measures the percentage of time in which people's feelings of sadness, stress, or pain exceed their feelings of happiness--all by demographic characteristic and activity. The results show that people aged 65 or older spend only 16 percent of their time with feelings of sadness, stress, or pain greater than their feelings of happiness. In contrast, people aged 25 to 64 feel bad rather than good a larger 20 percent of the time. By controlling for activity, the researchers nailed it: older Americans are happier because they spend more time engaging in activities that generate happiness (socializing, relaxing, gardening). Working-age adults must work, after all. Most of the happiness gap between older and younger adults is due to differences in their daily activities.

Language of School Children

Percentage of American children aged 5 to 17 who speak a language other than English at home: 21%.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, The Condition of Education 2011

Census Surprise: More Renters

What's up with this? According to new 2010 census data released yesterday, the nation has many more renters--and fewer homeowners--than estimated.

Compared to the March 2010 Current Population Survey estimates, the April 1, 2010 census counted 3.6 million more renter-occupied housing units and 2.8 million fewer owner-occupied housing units. The homeownership rate for the March-April 2010 time period was lower than estimated--just 65.1 percent according to the census rather than the 67.0 percent estimated by surveys. As economist Tom Lawler says on Calculated Risk, "From a demographer's standpoint, these are HUGE differences." He's right, it is huge. Expect heads to roll and thinking about the housing market to be revised--downward.

Interestingly, average household size according to the 2010 census (2.58 people) was little different from the estimated number (2.59).

More 2010 Census Data

Age and Sex Composition: 2010
The Hispanic Population: 2010

Schizophrenic or Generational?

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently called the public "schizophrenic" about Facebook--admiring it for its social capabilities and at the same time fearing it for invading their privacy.

This is no mental health problem. It is a generational problem. Take a look at the percentage of Americans who have a personal profile page on a social networking site, according to Arbitron research (The Infinite Dial 2011: Navigating Digital Platforms):

12-17:  76%
18-24:  80%
25-34:  68%
35-44:  63%
45-54:  45%
55-64:  31%
65 + :   15%

Also note that the average age of the politicians grandstanding about Facebook for their aged constituents is 56.7 (Congress) and 62.2 (Senate).

College: Expensive Insurance

Why parents send their children to college, according to PayPal founder Peter Thiel in Forbes:

It’s basically a way to buy insurance to make sure your kids don’t fall out of the middle or upper middle class. The broader social questions we should be asking is why has the cost of insurance gone up so much…. our society has become less stable, if you don’t do things the exact right way, if you deviate, you get whacked.

Getting the News

Where college graduates get most of their news...

Internet: 42%
Television: 27%
Newspaper: 21%
Radio: 10%

Source: General Social Survey

No Health Insurance by State

States with the smallest percentage of people without health insurance...

Massachusetts	4.4%
Hawaii	8.2%
Minnesota	8.8%
Wisconsin	9.5%
Vermont	9.9%

States with the largest percentage of people without health insurance...

Texas	26.1%
Florida	22.4%
New Mexico	21.7%
Nevada	20.8%
Georgia	20.5%

Source: Census Bureau, Health Insurance Coverage by State

Mass Transit Blues

No matter how high gas prices climb, the 52 percent majority of Americans say they will not use mass transit as their main source of transportation, according to a Gallup poll.

This is not snobbery, but necessity. Fully 46 percent of households in the United States do not have public transportation in their area, according to the American Housing Survey. They have no choice but to keep pumping no matter how high the price.

Mobility Rate High for Young Renters

Percentage of renters aged 20 to 24 who moved in the past year: 46%.

Source: Census Bureau, Geographic Mobility, 2009 to 2010

Homeowner Mobility Rate Unchanged

The mobility rate of the nation's homeowners remained at the record low of 5.2 percent in 2009-10, unchanged from the rate of 2008–09. In data released this morning, the Census Bureau's figures show a nation of movers paralyzed by the collapse of the housing market.

Among renters, 29.0 percent moved in 2009-10, down slightly from the 29.6 percent who moved between 2008-09. Renter mobility has changed little over the past decade--it peaked at 30.8 percent in 2001–02.

During the past decade, homeowner mobility has been as high as 8.1 percent. That was in 2001-02, a year when nearly 16 million homeowners moved. In 2009-10, only 10.8 million homeowners moved.

Source: Census Bureau, Geographic Mobility, 2009 to 2010

Americans Still Stuck

The nation's geographic mobility rate barely changed as the United States emerged from the Great Recession. According to data released this morning, only 12.51 percent of Americans aged 1 or older moved between 2009 and 2010, almost identical to the 12.49 percent who moved between 2008–09--during the depths of the recession.

More details later.

Source: Census Bureau, Geographic Mobility, 2009 to 2010

Real Estate Industry Is Aging--Fast

The collapse of the housing market is transforming the National Association of Realtors, the professional association of the real estate industry. According to demographic research produced by Nikolai Kolding, a partner in the real estate consulting group REAL Trends, the median age of NAR members is rising rapidly, climbing from 51 to 56 between 2006 and 2011. Behind the aging of NAR is its changing demographics. Not only is total membership shrinking, but the biggest declines are occurring among younger members.

Overall, NAR's membership fell 21 percent between 2006 and 2011, says Kolding, from 1.36 million to 1.07 million. By age group, the changes look like this...

under age 35: -50%
35 to 44: -45%
45 to 54: -32%
55 or older: +4%

Kolding comments: "The industry is very rapidly aging in part due to the fact that younger sales agents appear to be leaving the business in droves....this may be greatly hurting an industry that is trying to relate to an ever-younger pool of potential buyers."

As a profession, the real estate industry is not alone in coping with enormous demographic change as younger adults look elsewhere for economic opportunity. According to unpublished tables from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median age of the overall labor force climbed from 40.8 in 2006 to 42.0 in 2010 (the latest data available) because of the aging of the baby-boom generation. Some occupations are aging more rapidly, however, as younger adults shy away from uncertainty. The median age of bookkeepers, for example, climbed from 45.2 to 47.7 between 2006 and 2010. Postmasters aged from 51.5 to 53.5, travel agents from 46.0 to 48.5, and bridge and lock tenders aged by nearly 10 years--from 46.7 to 56.6. Bottom line: The age composition of occupations can change rapidly depending on perceived economic opportunity.

In his monthly newsletter, Kolding offers advice to the real estate industry: "We believe brokers would be well served building the rental and property management businesses to prepare for the growing proportion of the population that will rent rather than buy. Many of the companies we deal with that have strong rental and brokerage units tell us that the rental division often attracts a younger professional who, in time, moves on to the brokerage side. It would seem that expanding your rental business could potentially address two challenges at once."

Very Cool Interactive Map

Want to know 2010 census details about housing in your area? Check out the Census Bureau's interactive map that allows you to click and zoom in on any state, county, or place in the United States and get owner-occupied, renter-occupied, vacant, for rent, and for sale housing unit counts.

Population by race, ethnicity, age, and sex are also on tap at the site. Note that data for 13 states are still to come. The final state release (for Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia) and national totals are scheduled for Thursday, May 26.

How Many Kids?

Average number of children born in lifetime to American women
by race and Hispanic origin...

Asian: 1.96
Black: 2.03
Hispanic: 2.73
Non-Hispanic white: 1.78

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Births: Preliminary Data for 2009

The Word of God

Percentage of Americans who believe the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word: 34%.

Source: General Social Survey

What's Education Got To Do with It?

Among the 3.7 million women who had a baby in the past year, those with the least education are also the ones least likely to be married. Percent of women who gave birth in the past year who were married, by educational attainment...

Less than high school: 39%
High school graduate only: 48%
Some college: 58%
Bachelor's degree or more: 89%

Source: Census Bureau, Fertility of American Women: 2010

Most Think Spanking is OK

Percentage of Americans aged 18 or older who agree that it is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good, hard spanking: 69%.

Source: General Social Survey

The Ex: How Many Are Out There?

51 million. According to a new Census Bureau report, 21 percent of men and 22 percent of women aged 15 or older have ever divorced. Do the math, and this translates into roughly 51 million exes haunting their former spouses in the United States.

Most likely to have an ex are men born in the 1940s (aged 60 to 69 in 2009, the year of the analysis) and women born in the 1950s (aged 50 to 59). Thirty-seven percent have divorced at least once.

Source: Census Bureau, Number, Timing and Duration of Marriages and Divorces: 2009

How Much Do Young Adults Spend?

If you want to know, then check out this new report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In "Do two live as cheaply as one? Evidence from the Consumer Expenditure Survey," BLS researchers examine the per capita spending of singles and married couples in their twenties on a variety of products and services. The best part is, the researchers have analyzed spending by detailed age group: ages 21 to 23, ages 24 to 26, and ages 27 to 29.

How much do 21-to-23-year-old singles spend on alcohol? Answer: $622 annually in 2008-09. Those aged 24 to 26 spent $546, and singles aged 27 to 29 spent $635. On a per capita basis, their married counterparts spent far less.

Third World Nation

One in five American workers is a...

Retail salesperson

Cashier

Office clerk

Food preparation/serving worker

Registered nurse

Waiter or waitress

Customer service rep

Janitor

Laborer

Secretary

Only one of these occupations pays more than $16 per hour. Registered nurse is the exception, with an average wage of $32.56 per hour.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wages--May 2010

Death the Old-Fashioned Way

Number of Americans who died from...

Measles: 2
Scarlet fever: 5
Whooping cough: 15
Syphilis: 33
Abortion: 34
Tuberculosis: 547
Childbirth: 839

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2009

More Shopping Centers

The number of shopping centers in the United States increased 19 percent between 2000 and 2009 (the latest data available), to 104,919.

Source: Census Bureau, 2011 Statistical Abstract

Trouble for American Men

Percentage of men with full-time jobs, by age...

25-34: 61%
35-44: 70%
45-54: 67%
55-64: 54%

Source: Census Bureau

Fewer Doctor Visits

An article in the New York Times ("Health Insurers Making Record Profits as Many Postpone Care") notes that Americans are putting off doctor visits and medical tests as out-of-pocket costs mount, reducing expenses for health insurers and boosting their profits.

The latest edition of the government's Bible of health care statistics, Health, United States, 2010, confirms the fact that millions are thinking twice before going to the doctor. The number of physician office visits fell between 2007 and 2008 (the latest data available, and the first year of the Great Recession) from 994 million to 956 million. The number of visits per person fell from 3.32 to 3.15.

Another government survey shows that the out-of-pocket share of expenses for doctor visits among people under age 65 with private health insurance grew from 15.2 to 16.6 percent of the total median cost of a visit between 2007 and 2008. By my calculation, out-of-pocket expenses for the insured under age 65 climbed from $46 to $53 per visit.

The Mystery of the Billboards

On a recent road trip, with nothing better to do, I decided to count and categorize every billboard on my side of the highway for a stretch of interstate the length of one state. I did this on the return trip as well. The total distance of my billboard census was 210 miles, and the total number of billboards was 202. While not representative of billboards nationally, the results do raise disturbing questions. Here is what I saw:

	number	percent
Total billboards	202	100.0%
Land for sale	23	11.4%
Home/office for sale/rent	21	10.4%
Motels	20	9.9%
Outlet malls	20	9.9%
Blank billboards	15	7.4%
Restaurants	12	5.9%
Radio/Internet/television	8	4.0%
Vehicles	8	4.0%
Alcoholic beverages	5	2.5%
Gas or gas/restaurant combos	5	2.5%

The remaining billboards, with one to four in each category, were a hodgepodge that included medical services, churches, events, household furnishings, home improvement, camping/RV, community promotions, exit promotions, antiques, flea markets, military recruitment, public health, service organizations, department stores, clothing, lawn and garden supplies, insurance, banks, boats, docks, food products, and museums.

Observations: 

1) Most billboards looked faded and yellowed. Did the business still exist? 

2) Most billboards were difficult to read. Few communicated their brand.
3) Of the 20 billboards for outlet malls, 19 were for a single mall.
4) Among the 202 billboards, only 6 were digital.

Questions:
1) Are GPS devices and smart phones undermining the billboard industry?
2) Why are so many billboards selling things that nobody wants? Is this an advertising medium of last resort? One in five billboards was selling real estate in one form or another. A large proportion of billboards were blanks or advertising their own space.
3) Is the sorry state of billboards an indicator of a crippled economy, the slow descent of portions of America into third-world status? Are rural stretches of the United States hollowing out, leaving the lamest businesses behind as creativity and gumption move to urban centers?

Just asking.

Welfare Queens Rule Very Tiny Kingdom

Percentage of Americans aged 15 or older who are on welfare: 0.96%

Source: Census Bureau

The Affluence of Same-Sex Couples

Among the nation's 6.5 million unmarried couples, 581,300 are same-sex couples, according to a Census Bureau analysis of data from the 2009 American Community Survey.

Male same-sex couples are far more affluent than married couples. Female same-sex couples are equally as affluent as married couples. Here is average household income by type of couple...

Male same-sex couples: $116,749
Married opposite-sex couples: $93,351
Female same-sex couples: $92,213
Unmarried opposite-sex couples: $64,005

Source: Census Bureau, Families and Living Arrangements, Working Papers

Bet You Didn't Know

Average price of a double-wide mobile home: $72,900.

Source: Census Bureau, Manufactured Homes Survey, February 2011

Rent or Buy?

With home prices continuing to slide, a handful of Americans are finding themselves in the catbird seat, trying to decide whether to rent or buy their next home. Pundits are offering advice, realtors and homebuilders are offering incentives, and the media are dissecting and mapping price-to-rent ratios in cities across the country. Ignore them all. This is a decision that does not require a calculator, but instead an honest appraisal of your life. Only if you meet the following five criteria should you consider buying a house:

1. You love where you live. Buy a house only if you know without a doubt that you want to live in an area--and in a house--for the foreseeable future. Typically, the advice is to buy if you plan to live in an area for at least five years. This is laughable today. You should think decades, not years. In many areas, it takes years just to sell a house. So forget the "starter home," shrewd investment, and flip-this-house concepts. All are out of date. Buy only if you do not plan to sell--ever.

2. Your employer loves you. Buy a house only if you know without a doubt that you have a job or income stream for the foreseeable future. How many working Americans feel that way? Only 52 percent, according to the latest General Social Survey. With the economy still in ICU, even those who think they have job security may be in for a surprise.

3. The economy loves your employer. Maybe your employer really does love you, but does the economy love your employer? If the answer is yes--no matter what Steve Jobs happens to invent next--then you might consider buying a home.

4. You love your spouse (and your spouse loves you). Buy a house only if your marriage will outlast your mortgage. Also, make sure your spouse meets criteria 1, 2, and 3.

5. You can afford the commute. Buy a house only if the commute will not crimp your lifestyle--no matter how high the price of gasoline. House prices may be low in the farflung suburban rings, but you will be trapped in a gasoline ghetto.

Young Adults No Longer Most Likely to be Uninsured

Young adults no longer have the distinction of being the age group least likely to have health insurance. The percentage of 18-to-26-year-olds without health insurance fell from 28.6 percent in 2009 to 24.0 percent in the January-April 2011 time period--a 4.6 percentage point decline. Behind the decline is the provision in the Health Care Reform Act, which went into effect in September 2010, allowing adults under age 26 to remain on their parents' health insurance plan.

Now people aged 27 to 35 are the ones least likely to have health insurance. In the January-April 2011 time period, 26.7 percent of the age group was uninsured, up from 25.2 percent in 2009.

Source: Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index

Where the Bartenders Are

State with the highest concentration of...

Pest control workers: Florida
Fashion designers: New York
Mental health counselors: Pennsylvania
Meeting planners: District of Columbia
Optometrists: Hawaii
Crossing guards: New Jersey
Bill collectors: South Dakota
Bartenders: Montana

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics

Rounding Problems

For anyone who writes about numbers, rounding is a problem. It always seems to be the case--although it happens only 10 percent of the time--that a percentage figure under discussion ends in a .5, as in 22.5 percent of people aged 65 or older have a bachelor's degree.

When writing about numbers, decimals are messy. It is distracting for readers to lumber over decimals. Readers can get lost in the complexity of decimals and fail to get the point. That's why, when I write about percentages, I like to limit the discussion to whole numbers if possible. Most of the time, this is not a problem. Nine out of ten decimal digits are rounded easily and without torment. There are rules, after all. But .5 is a problem. When a .5 crops up, do you round up when writing about the number?

I know, I know. There is a rule. A .5 rounds up. It seems simple, but it's not. What if the number being reported has itself been rounded? Let's say the number 22.5 appears on a government spreadsheet. The question is, did the government round the number up or down to arrive at 22.5? The number could have been 22.478, for example, or it could have been 22.508. If it was 22.478, then rounding up to 23 in the discussion would be incorrect. To be correct requires diving deeper into the decimal places of the number shown. Most of the time this is only an annoyance and not a problem--the cell can be highlighted and additional decimal places produced with a few clicks of the "increase decimal" button, or the division of numerator by denominator can be done by hand, the curtain parted, and the additional decimals exposed. But occasionally the government produces tables with truncated numbers and the rounding direction cannot be determined. In that case, the messy decimal .5 must be retained in the discussion. This is never a happy moment.

FYI, the 22.5 percent of people aged 65 or older with a bachelor's degree rounds up to 23 (22.508).

Single Mothers, Good or Bad?

A recent Pew Research Center poll asked whether "more single women having children without a male partner to help raise them" was a "bad thing for society." Not surprisingly, the 69 percent majority of the public said it was bad.

This is backwards thinking, however. It's not that single mothers are bad for society, it's that bad societies create single mothers. When men cannot find stable employment that pays a living wage, single mothers are the result. According to the National Center for Health Statistics 2009 report on births, here are the percentages of babies born to single mothers by race and Hispanic origin:

Black: 73%
Hispanic: 53%
Non-Hispanic white: 29%
Asian: 17%

Note the order of the race and Hispanic origin groups, with blacks most likely to have babies out of wedlock and Asians least likely. These numbers are not a measure of morals. They are a measure of the economic opportunity available to men in our society. Asian men are highly educated and typically earn above-average wages. Black men--even today--are often shut out of stable jobs that pay a living wage. Thus, the consequences on women and children.

Knowing these facts about men, women, and children, this trend should set off alarm bells: Between 1970 and 2009, the percentage of Americans babies born to single mothers climbed from 11 to 41 percent.

New Mothers

Average age at which American women have their first baby: 25.1 years.

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Births: Final Data for 2008

Does Childbearing Lower Women's Wages?

It has long been assumed that a woman's lifetime earnings are reduced by childbearing. A new study confirms that assumption and also measures the size of the loss. In an analysis (Working Paper 16582) of a longitudinal survey that tracked women aged 14 to 21 in 1979 for more than 25 years, researchers from the National Bureau of Economic Research discovered that the average high-scoring (i.e., smart) woman loses $230,000 in wages over her lifetime if she has children. Motherhood reduces the average low-scoring woman's wages by a smaller $49,000.

Wanted: Software Engineers

The number of employed Americans fell by 7 million between 2007 (the year employment peaked) and 2010. Employment in some occupations has grown, however. During those years the number of computer software engineers grew 13 percent to surpass 1 million. Here is the age distribution of those workers in 2010:

Under age 25	4.5%
Aged 25 to 34	31.2%
Aged 35 to 44	30.5%
Aged 45 to 54	23.0%
Aged 55 to 64	9.3%
Aged 65+	1.5%

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, unpublished table

Get Ready for More Census Data

Today the Census Bureau began its release of 2010 census demographic profile data on a state-by-state basis. Tables include total, male, and female populations in five-year and selected age groups, Asians and Hispanics by ethnic group, household type, household relationship, housing occupancy, and housing tenure. Local area data within states are also available for these characteristics. Data for 13 states will be released each week, with data for all states (and local areas) available by the end of May.

Today's release is for the following states: Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Next week's release (May 12) will be for the following states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Puerto Rico.

Interesting nugget from today's release: In Florida, households with people aged 65 or older (31 percent) outnumber households with children under age 18 (30 percent).

Dental Work

Percentage of adults who have been to a dentist in the past year, by household income...

Less than $35,000: 45%
$35,000 to $49,999: 54%
$50,000 to $74,999: 66%
$75,000 to $99,999: 72%
$100,000 or more: 80%

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: National Health Interview Survey, 2009

What is Wrong with this Article?

"New Households Form at Fastest Rate Since '07 in Resurgent U.S.," headlined a recent Bloomberg article. The premise of the article: pent-up demand for independent households among young adults who have been doubling up with mom and dad is going to boost housing starts in the near future.

No doubt there is pent-up demand for independent housing among young adults, but at best they will become renters not owners. The market for new homes is not likely to recover anytime soon and perhaps not in our lifetime. Unemployment, student loan debt, and depressed wages have shaken the middle class, and the epicenter of the quake is among young adults. At this point, we are only beginning to see the extent of the destruction, and the ground is still shaking.

Yet the experts insist that business as usual is just around the corner. Comments one economist in the Bloomberg article: "The demographic component of housing demand is strong: it's just the economic and psychological components that are holding things back." So, it's just the money and the abject terror--no biggie.

"At some point, housing starts will likely take off in a big way," comments another expert. "I just do not think that Americans will settle for living in more crowded homes."

Settle? Settle? Do they think money grows on trees? Until the housing industry wakes up to the fact that its interests and the interests of union-busting politicians, stingy corporations, greedy universities, and predatory financial institutions are not the same, there is no hope of a return to business as usual in the housing industry.

New Citizens

Hundreds of thousands of foreign-born residents of the United States gained their citizenship status in 2010, according to a new report on naturalizations by the Department of Homeland Security. Last year, 619,913 legal permanent residents of the United States became U.S. citizens. This number is well below the record high of more than 1 million in 2008.

Newly naturalized citizens had a median age of 39, the 53 percent majority were female, and two out of three were married. They had spent a median of six years in legal permanent resident status in the United States before becoming citizens. Mexico was the most common country of birth for newly naturalized citizens, but accounted for only 11 percent of total naturalizations in 2010.

Public Schools Still Make Room for Art

Despite the obsession in the educational establishment with the three Rs, the great majority of public elementary and secondary schools still offer instruction in music and the visual arts, according to a 2009-10 survey by the National Center for Education Statistics. Among elementary schools, 94 percent offer music and 83 percent offer visual art classes. Among secondary schools the figures are 91 and 89 percent, respectively. On board to teach these subjects at most schools are full-time art specialists.

Look Out Below!

Here's a number you are going to see bandied about in the next few weeks, purporting to show how public schools are failing. Supposedly, only 75.5 percent of 9th graders in 2005-06 graduated from high school in 2008-09. That's the latest "averaged high school graduation rate," according to a new report released by the National Center for Education Statistics. By state the statistic varies from a high of 90.7 percent in Wisconsin to a low of 56.3 percent in Nevada.

Don't believe it. The first sign that this is a bogus measure is its tortured name. The second sign of bogosity is that the rate doesn't match reality--it is far below the 89.9 percent of 16-to-24-year-olds who actually have a high school diploma or GED (see table here).

The third sign that the "averaged high school graduation rate" is bogus is the methodology behind it, invented by morons. The rate is calculated by taking the number of high school graduates in a school district in a given year and dividing by the number of freshmen in the school district four years earlier. So, any student who moves out of a school district is counted as a dropout. That's why states with little migration have high "graduation" rates, and states with lots of migration have low "graduation" rates. Pure genius.

The Young Are Optimistic

Percentage who say it is very or somewhat likely that today's youth will have a better life than their parents, by age...

18 to 29: 57%
30 to 44: 45%
50 to 64: 36%
65 or older: 37%

Source: Gallup

Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead

Typically, older Americans are the ones most informed about the news. Yesterday's killing of Osama Bin Laden may have been the first Big News event in which the youngest generation was the first to know and spread the news to their peers in a whoosh of texting, Twittering, and Facebook posts.

On the East Coast, many older Americans were asleep when the news that Osama Bin Laden was dead burst onto millions of cellphones. It is likely that many did not hear the news until hours later when they collected their morning paper. There is no doubt that the audience for President Obama's late night remarks was decidedly youthful, as were the crowds that formed spontaneously in Washington, D.C. and New York.

Everyone under the age of, say, 25 has another reason besides their late night schedules and texting prowess to follow the news about Osama Bin Laden's killing so closely. Older generations have seen enemies come and go--Germans, Japanese, North Vietnamese, communists, Richard Nixon. For the younger generation, Osama Bin Laden was The Enemy. Now he's dead. This is their V-Day.

Death Row, 2010

Number of prisoners on death row: 3,260.
Number executed: 46

Source: Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics