Demographics & Population Data

On December 19th, 2024, the U.S. Census Bureau released their vintage 2024 population estimates for the nation and states. This estimates series incorporates a methodological change to how the Census Bureau estimated net international migration, resulting in substantially higher nationwide estimates of net international migration over the last several years.

The blended base is the estimate of the national, state, and county populations by age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin as of April 1st, 2020, that the Census Bureau has used in their population estimates since the 2020 Decennial Census. The blended base uses population totals from the 2020 Decennial Census, but the distribution of the population by age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin comes from other data sources.

In this blog post, we will:

• Provide an introduction to the blended base and why it matters

• Compare Connecticut’s blended base population estimates by age and sex to the 2020 Decennial Census counts for the state

• Discuss the future of the population estimates base

• Dive into more details on the blended base methodology for those who are interested

Last week the Census Bureau announced that it will implement updated standards for the collection and reporting of race and ethnicity data set by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that are effective as of March 28th, 2024. This is the first time the OMB’s race and ethnicity data standards have changed since 1997. Read more.

Connecticut’s Department of Public Health (DPH) has determined that the Census Bureau’s vintage 2022 population estimates are artificially high for certain Connecticut towns in 2021 and 2022 due to pandemic-related issues with the counts of residents in group quarters facilities.

This blog post:

1. discusses what happened;

2. explains the impact on population estimates for specific towns, planning regions and the state;

3. delineates which population estimates the state will be using for official purposes; and

4. provides some recommendations for data users on which version of the population estimates to use, and where to find these estimates.

The 2020 Demographic and Housing Characteristics File (DHC), released by the U.S. Census Bureau in May 2023, is one of many data products released as part of the 2020 decennial census. The DHC file includes detailed tables on topics such as age, sex, race, ethnicity, along with many topics about households and families.

The raw data can be downloaded on the Census Bureau’s website, but CTData has created a 2020 Demographics and Housing Explorer for data users to easily access and explore data found in the DHC file. Click the button or preview below to explore data for your town!

Accurate population estimates are vital for informed decision-making and planning for the future. The U.S. Census Bureau produces annual population estimates that provide valuable population insights. This blog post explores the methodology utilized by the Census Bureau to produce these estimates, highlighting the data sources, statistical techniques, and considerations on when to use them.

To protect respondents’ privacy, for the 2020 Decennial Census the Census Bureau is using a modern disclosure avoidance approach called differential privacy. In brief, differential privacy adds statistical noise—small random additions or subtractions—into the data to reduce the risk that someone could reidentify any person or household.

In this post, we will: (1) describe how differential privacy is applied to the 2020 Decennial Census data; (2) review the Census Bureau’s guidance for 2020 Decennial Census data users; (3) provide an overview of the summary metrics file released by the Census Bureau; and (4) discuss some illustrative examples of the amount of error introduced to certain counts as reported in the summary metrics file.

In 2020, the Census Bureau made some important changes to how they collect and process race and ethnicity data. These changes were intended to better capture the increasingly diverse racial and ethnic identities of the U.S. population, while still following the 1997 Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity. However, these changes also raise some questions about the validity of the Census Bureau’s “Two or More Races” classification in 2020, particularly for Hispanic and Latino individuals. They also complicate comparisons with race data from before 2020, making it difficult to assess change over time. In this blog post, we discuss the consequences of the Census Bureau’s recent changes to how they collect and process race and ethnicity data, as well as the proposed revisions to the OMB standards for the classification of federal data on race and ethnicity.

The 2020 Decennial Census faced unprecedented challenges: the COVID-19 pandemic, political interference, natural disasters, and the implementation of a new approach to privacy protection called differential privacy. We invited two experts to share what this means for using Census 2020 data. Amy O’Hara is a Research Professor in the Massive Data Institute and Executive Director of the Federal Statistical Research Data Center at Georgetown University. Elizabeth Garner is the State Demographer at the Colorado State Demography Office.

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the lives of Connecticut residents in many ways, from introducing many workers to remote work to exacerbating the financial struggles of others. Last year, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that standard 2020 ACS 1-year estimates would not be released, as Covid-19 severely impacted the data collection process and ultimately resulted in estimates that did not meet the Census Bureau’s Statistical Data Quality Standards. The Census Bureau was able to work through data collection challenges this year and released ACS 2021 1-year estimates on September 15, 2022.

In this post, we analyze changes from pre-pandemic (2019 ACS 1-year estimates) to the most recent time frame of data we have (2021 ACS 1-year estimates) to explore the impact of the pandemic on Connecticut residents and workers.