The U.S. Census Bureau released it’s last bunch of information from the 2010 national count today. Gary Krob helps sort through the information for the State Data Center.
Krob says this release is almost more notable for what it doesn’t include that what it does include. He says 2010 was the first census to not have a long form questionnaire that includes income information. Krob says the income information is now collected every year in what’s called the “American Community Survey.”
This information does include more detailed demographic information and Krob says there were a few things that stuck out. He says there was a significant increase in unmarried partners in Iowa, and he says the reasons behind that are anyone’s guess, and it’s not clear whether it has anything to do with same-sex marriage or not.
Krob says there was a “fairly significant” increase in the number of grandparents living in households, and in a lot of cases it was grandparents living in households with parents as well. The numbers on grandparents could indicate a trend due to the economy, but Krob says that’s not immediately clear when you look at previously released income data.
Krob says for the most part the data showed there was an increase in median household income, but that was for the period of 2005 to 2009. He says there will be another income data release in the fall and that will include 2006 to 2010, so he says the year-to-year data release may not be showing up just yet in the data.
General information already released showed there were double and triple digit increases in the Hispanic populations in the state from 2000. Krob says the more detailed information on the Hispanic population released today caught his interest. He says the Hispanic population increase in almost every age group from under 1-year-old to 104-plus, and he says there may’ve been only one or two age groups where there was a decrease. Krob says the information is used for a lot of different things.
Krob says a lot of government entities use it to do budget planning, and all types of groups use it as support for grants they seek from the government. He says it’s also useful for someone who might want to start a business wanting to get a detailed picture of the makeup of their community.
You can find out more about the Census data at the State Data Center website at: www.iowadatacenter.org.