How Diverse Is Your County? Census Maps Tell Stories

Who’s in your coverage area, and how is local diversity changing? Some useful maps from the US Census can help you bring your local demographic picture into focus, and spot current and emerging trends that could help you hone your community coverage and outreach strategies…

First, in 2001 the US Census published Mapping Census 2000: The Geography of US Diversity. This 114-page pdf file puts county-level US Census data on diversity into sharp focus and context. Here are some good places to start your local explorations. (All page numbers refer to the numbering in the pdf file; page numbers shown on the printed version of this document are different.)

• Overall diversity. Page 29, “Diversity 2000,” shows which counties were more or less diverse according to the US Census diversity index (the probability that two randomly selected people in that county would be of different races). Page 30 shows how much diversity changed at the county level since the 1990 Census.
• Which counties are more/less white? People who identify as non-Hispanic white comprise the majority of the US population. Page 33 shows which counties reported an increasing or decreasing percentage of white people from 1990 to 2000. The most notable drop runs in rural counties in a straight line from Montana and North Dakota down to west Texas. Page 34 shows the white population percentage by county. (This Census publication offers similar analysis according to several other racial identities—but knowing trends with the local majority sets the context for understanding emerging minority demographic trends.)
• Interracial families. This is one of the potentially most intriguing angles for your coverage and outreach. Page 94 indicates that in 2000, only a small percentage of people in most counties reported being of more than one race. But that percentage skyrockets for most counties in page 95, which shows how many people 18 and under (in 2000) were of more than one race. A basic fact of demographics is that the younger the generation, the bigger the population—so the 2010 Census will probably reveal an even bigger shift to bi- or multi-racial identification. Might this be a kind of community in its own right worthy of closer attention from your news organization?

Also, earlier this year the US Census released the Census Atlas of the US, which (with a little tweaking) can help news organizations see opportunities for demographic outreach and engagement:

The Atlas was packaged as a 300-page large-format print book containing over 800 maps that illustrate the data from the latest US Census (2000). The complete contents of the book are available as free pdf downloads from the Census site. The downside is that, for some reason, this valuable document was electronically encoded in a way that is not searchable—that is, each page (including all the text) has been captured as an image. So you can’t search the raw pdf files for keywords, etc. However, you can download the book chapter-by-chapter and process the pdf files using optical character recognition (OCR) software to create a reasonably searchable version.

Today I was browsing chapter 3 of the Atlas, on Race and Hispanic Origin. Page 9 of this pdf file offers the story of bi- and multiracial American couples in greater detail: Who’s marrying (or living with) whom, racially speaking, in particular counties? Meanwhile, pages 10 and 11 look at the demographic distribution of bi- and multiracial children as of 2000. (Note that since the 1990 Census did not gather data on mixed-race families or individuals, it’s harder to look at local changes on this front. But the 2010 Census will offer change data.)

What do the maps in these documents say about race demographic trends in your county or region? How might this context relate to your stories, marketing, or strategies? Please comment below.

Comments