Research

Several weeks ago, I posted an article on the importance of humanizing data so that people better understand the stories that lie behind the numbers.  Sometimes these data can help us uncover profound truths about ourselves as well as provide insights into society as a whole.The internet has been all a buzz about the recent release […]

The Weldon Cooper Center released a report today examining geographic and demographic changes in Virginia’s black population over time: Blacks in Virginia: Demographic Trends in Historical Context. One topic in the report is the continued residential segregation of blacks in Virginia’s big metropolitan centers. I thought it would be interesting, as well, to have a […]

Speaking of infographics, I’ve been playing with the college completion data I highlighted previously. Below is a star chart (aka radar chart, spider chart) of data on Virginia’s 4-year public colleges.Each spoke represents a different piece of data, and the length of the spoke conveys the magnitude of that data for each university. The colleges […]

Over the past few weeks I’ve been watching closely the recent efforts by the National Journal to prominently showcase stories, polls, and news events that highlight demography and population change. With a particular focus on politics, the “Next America” project, beginning with the articles written by Editorial Director Ronald Brownstein, is an “unprecedented effort to explore the […]

I read quite a few blogs about demographics and statistics.  One of my favorites is FlowingData, which is written by Nathan Yau, a PhD candidate in statistics at UCLA.  He focuses mainly on how researchers use data visualization to convey their results to non-experts.  Nathan recently posted links to two really neat infographics.1) Pay gap […]

This year marks the end of bank-provided tax refund anticipation loans.  Refund anticipation loans (RALs) are short-term loans with high interest and fees that are based on a filer’s expected tax refund (minus tax preparation fees, loan fees, and interest).  RALs provide access to tax refund money about 7-9 days earlier than if the filer […]

Most of us have heard talk about the Baby Boomers and how they will impact the U.S. population in the next few decades.  The Boomers are the large group of people (76 million) who were born in the U.S. between 1946 and 1964.   The oldest members of the cohort have just started turning 65 […]

In March, The Chronicle of Higher Education, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, produced a microsite of college completion: it seeks to show “Who graduates from college, who doesn’t, and why it matters.” With data on 3,800 degree-granting institutions in the U.S., you can easily waste a lunch break (or two) exploring […]

Every year the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases new data about occupations and employment in America. They estimate how many jobs there are for doctors and actors, how many jobs there are in manufacturing and real estate, how many jobs there are in a multitude of other occupations and industries. And every two years […]

As a professional demographer, and one who studies and collects data on people for a living, one of the issues I frequently get asked about is privacy.  The topic has always been important in my work for the Weldon Cooper Center and it also has been front and center for the U.S. Census Bureau in […]