Society & Demographics News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

Ally Mutnick
@allymutnick
Some fun Census stats on 2010-2020:

>> McKenzie County, North Dakota (!) was the fastest growing US county, up 131%

>> The Villages, FL was the fastest growing US metro area, up 39%

>> US population growth this decade was slower than any other this past century, save the 1930s
11:14 AM · Aug 12, 2021

[weatheriscool]

The New York Times
@nytimes
·
12m
Nearly every county in the U.S. became more diverse in the last decade as the nation recorded its first drop in the white population in 2020, according to new census data released on Thursday. Here's a breakdown. https://nyti.ms/3xC8Ac4
Image

[Yuli Ban]

White population's dropping? Can't imagine white nationalists are happy to hear that.

Then again, that's just the first silo of every demographic's population dropping within the next 30 years.

[weatheriscool]

California's Asian population soars, new census data shows
Source: Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s Asian population grew by 25% in the past decade, making it the fastest growing ethnic group in the nation’s most populous state, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday.

California’s white population plummeted by 24% between 2010 and 2020, confirming California is one of three states — along with New Mexico and Hawaii — where whites are not the largest ethnic group.

Hispanics surpassed whites as California’s largest ethnic group in 2014. The Census data show California’s Hispanic population grew by 11% to 15.5 million people, making up just shy of 40% of the state’s nearly 40 million residents.

But it was the Asian population that had the biggest percentage gain over the past decade. California now has more than 6 million people of Asian descent — more than the total population of most other states.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/california-r ... ba0a35a1e3

[wjfox]

Study: Evolution now accepted by majority of Americans

August 20, 2021

The level of public acceptance of evolution in the United States is now solidly above the halfway mark, according to a new study based on a series of national public opinion surveys conducted over the last 35 years.

“From 1985 to 2010, there was a statistical dead heat between acceptance and rejection of evolution,” said lead researcher Jon D. Miller of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. “But acceptance then surged, becoming the majority position in 2016.”

Examining data over 35 years, the study consistently identified aspects of education—civic science literacy, taking college courses in science and having a college degree—as the strongest factors leading to the acceptance of evolution.

“Almost twice as many Americans held a college degree in 2018 as in 1988,” said co-author Mark Ackerman, a researcher at Michigan Engineering, the U-M School of Information and Michigan Medicine. “It’s hard to earn a college degree without acquiring at least a little respect for the success of science.”

https://news.umich.edu/study-evolution- ... americans/

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Scholar Explores the Ways Migration Changes People’s Attitudes, Beliefs and Religion
by Mark Wingfield
August 27, 2021

https://baptistnews.com/article/scholar ... -religion/

(Baptist News) Over time, immigrants to new countries behave in new ways and embrace new ideas that they would not have embodied had they never left home, according to João Chaves, author of a forthcoming book titled Migrational Religion: Context and Creativity in the Latinx Diaspora.

...In 1900, he reported, 82% of the world’s Christians lived in North America and Europe. Today, only 32% of the world’s Christians live in those regions, while the largest concentration lives in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Further, by the year 2060, the United States is projected to be the only country not located in Latin America, Africa or Asia among the 10 most populous nations for Christians.

Added to that, the shifting center of race and ethnicity in the United States will further change Christian identity, he said, quoting demographers’ projections that by 2050, non-Hispanic whites will make up 46% of the U.S. population, down from 65% in 2010. In the same time frame, Hispanics are projected to double in presence, from 16% to 30%.

Much of that growth will come through migration and the birth of children to those who have migrated.

[funkervogt]

What happens if you extend the X-axis and extrapolate the effects of the Baby Boomers dying off?

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

Boomers came at the right time to take everything before it all went tits up. Of course, the Boomers also had the resources to not let it go tits up and did nothing.

[weatheriscool]

Poverty fell overall in 2020 due to massive stimulus checks and unemployment aid, U.S. Census says

By Heather Long and Amy Goldstein
Today at 11:08 a.m. EDT

U.S. poverty fell overall in 2020, a surprising decline that is largely a result of the swift and large federal aid that Congress enacted at the start of the pandemic to try to prevent widespread financial hardship as the nation experienced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

The U.S. Census reported that the official poverty rate rose slightly in 2020 to 11.4 percent, up from a record low 10.5 percent in 2019, but that figure mostly reflects cash payments to Americans. After accounting for all the government aid payments, the so-called supplemental poverty measure declined to 9.1 percent in 2020 from 11.8 percent in 2019.

The decline in the poverty rate means that millions of Americans were lifted out of severe financial hardship last year, the U.S. Census said. Poverty is defined as having an income of less than $26,200 a year for a family of four.

Extensive federal relief assistance passed during the coronavirus pandemic is widely credited by economists and policy experts for preventing another Great Depression. The stimulus payments provided $1,200 cash payments to most low-income and middle-class Americans last year, moving 11.7 million people out of poverty, the Census said. Another 5.5 million people were prevented from falling into poverty by the enhanced unemployment insurance aid.



Supplemental poverty went down (US Census)

The annual findings also showed the proportion of Americans without health coverage rose slightly in 2020, marking the fourth year in a row that the ranks of the uninsured swelled.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... ance-2020/

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

• Researchers say previous estimates may have severely underestimated the pace of demographic decline
• Census data says the birth rate was 1.3 children for each woman last year – well below the level needed to stop the population from falling

[funkervogt]

The end of China's One-Child policy is still failing to reverse its population decline.

Last year, China recorded 8.52 births per 1,000 people according to the 2021 Statistical Yearbook released in the past week - the lowest figure since the yearbook data began in 1978.

It is a marked drop from the previous year's 10.41, and the lowest figure since Communist China was founded in 1949, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

In addition, the yearbook showed the number of marriages registered in 2020 reached a 17-year low, with only 8.14 million couples tying the knot last year.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/china-b ... ce-2334976

[Yuli Ban]

The long decline in the U.S. birthrate continues. 2020 saw the fewest babies born relative to the population of women between 15 and 44 of any year in American history. A recent Pew poll found the fraction of non-parents between 18 and 49 saying they were "very likely" to have kids fell from 32 percent in 2018 to 26 percent this year, while the fraction saying they were "not too likely" or "not at all likely" increased from 37 percent to 44 percent.

There are strong reasons to think these trends will only escalate. Absent major changes, in the next decade or two, the American population is likely going to start falling fast.

For many years, the U.S. had a weirdly high birth rate relative to peer nations, especially given how our horrible welfare state made parenthood exceptionally expensive. As I explained some years back, this was largely because of teen pregnancy and immigration from other countries with higher birthrates. But all that is ended now. Teen pregnancy has been falling steadily for decades, and birthrates in America's main sources of immigrants are also declining.

Now, it's important to note that fertility has fallen across the world, even in countries with ultra-generous welfare states for parents. This surely has something to do with changing norms for what people expect in marriage, a general decline in social connections of all kinds, and feminist liberation of women from repressive traditional gender roles (a good thing, to be clear).

In fact, there's a noticeable (if rough) link between continued enforcement of rigid gender norms and lower fertility. South Korea and Japan have notoriously severe social sanctions against single mothers and some of the lowest birthrates in the world, at an estimated 1.4 and 0.9 children per women respectively. Germany used to have a very patriarchal welfare state and paid for it in the form of a low birthrate, too, though it seems to have made some progress in this area recently. By contrast, Sweden and France have kept their fertility rate comparatively high (at 1.7 and 1.8 respectively) by embracing gender equality and generous welfare benefits — especially for single parents, as it's harder to raise a child by yourself.

[Yuli Ban]

[weatheriscool]

Honestly, I think the world would be better off with only 3-4 billion genetically perfect humans that live forever, don't have cancer or illness. Of course that is my opinion.

[caltrek]

Rural Illinois Has Lost Population Over the Past Decade. It’s Gained in Diversity
by Amanda Perez Pintado
December 15, 2021

https://investigatemidwest.org/2021/12/ ... diversity/

Introduction:

(Investigate Midwest) Scott Schwerer wonders about the funding.

Over the past decade, McDonough County, where Schwerer serves as county board chair, has lost about 5,000 people, dropping its population below 30,000. At a 16% reduction, it’s the greatest decline among rural counties in the state, and it’s going to hit the area, particularly its largest city, Macomb, in the pocketbook.

“They will lose a lot of funding because of the census being lower,” he said.

McDonough County isn’t alone. All but three rural counties in Illinois have lost population since 2010, reflecting a nationwide trend. The exodus is likely caused by, among other things, losing young people to big cities and the loss of agricultural jobs to technology, experts said.

“One of the issues that really sort of restructured the entire rural landscape over the past century has been this mechanization of agriculture,” said Christopher Merrett, professor and director of the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs at Western Illinois University, which happens to be in Macomb.

caltrek's comment: Democrats should not assume that such trends will automatically be to their benefit. Rural Hispanics some-times have more of an identity as being rural than they do as being Hispanics. Some leaders are vulnerable to being co-opted into the local power structures, especially if they simply toe the Republican line. Although presumably not so much a factor in Illinois, in other states there is the question of voter suppression and whether minority votes will even be counted.

[caltrek]

Believe it or not, I actually came upon this piece (see below) after I made the above post.

What do Shifting Demographics Have to do with the Future of the Republican Party?
by Mark Winfield
December 21, 2021

https://baptistnews.com/article/what-do ... can-party/

Introduction:

(Baptist News) America’s shifting demographics portend doom for the modern-day philosophy of the Republican Party, according to a leading social researcher. But democracy still could be “doomed” while waiting for those demographic shifts, according to a national columnist reflecting on the data.

For at least three decades, demographers have predicted — accurately — the changing racial and ethnic makeup of the nation as it heads toward a day when no single race holds a majority. The same demographers have predicted seismic shifts in political and social views because of these changes — as the emerging younger generation becomes more socially liberal and less traditionally religious.

That political change has been slower to take effect, though, for several reasons, including the uneven distribution of younger and more diverse populations in major metro areas but not in rural and small-town America. That also plays out in the makeup of the U.S. Senate, for example, which is based on a two-per-state formula that gives equal weight to smaller and more rural states and larger, more urban states.

Robert P. Jones, founder of Public Religion Research Institute, is interested in the intersection of these political and social trends with corresponding trends in religion.

Jones recently was interviewed by columnist Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post. The opinion piece in which she quotes him is headlined: “The Trend Against Religious Affiliation is a Grave Threat to the GOP. But Don’t Count on It to Save Democracy.”

[caltrek]

U.S. Life Expectancy Has Taken Its Sharpest Drop in More Than 75 Years
December 22, 2021

https://www.sciencealert.com/us-life-ex ... n-75-years

Introduction:

(Science Alert) US life expectancy dropped by 1.8 years in 2020, final official figures showed Wednesday, the steepest drop in more than 75 years driven in large part by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Life expectancy at birth was 77.0 years for the total US population last year, down from 78.8 years in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Among men it was 74.2 years, while for women the figure was 79.9 years.

Overall, COVID was the third-leading cause of death, accounting for 350,000 fatalities, just over a tenth of all registered deaths, said a CDC report, which finalized preliminary findings from July.

Some other causes of death also increased, possibly linked to difficulties accessing health care brought about by the pandemic. For the first time, diabetes deaths topped 100,000, while accidental/unintentional injury deaths topped 200,000 – also a first.