Stories
The counties with the most self-employed workers
Nearly 30 percent of workers in Juneau are self-employed, against 13 percent nationally. But high self-employment usually signals a shortage of employers rather than a surplus of entrepreneurs.
Why the census matters for you
Census data steers about $2.8 trillion a year, roughly $82,000 per person over the decade one count governs. It also decides your congressional district, and whether a grocery store or clinic opens nearby.
This Florida town had the biggest demographic shift in America
Lehigh Acres went from 75.6 percent white to 27.7 percent in 25 years, the largest swing of any US city over 50,000. The housing crash is what made it happen.
The cities where America's housing is oldest
The typical home in New Bedford was built in 1938. In Buckeye, Arizona it was built in 2011. Median year built quietly explains heating bills, air conditioning, lead pipes, and whether a city was finished before cars.
The most Indian communities in America are in one corner of New Jersey
Monmouth Junction, New Jersey is 46.6 percent Indian, and seven of the eight most Indian places in the country sit along one stretch of the Route 1 corridor. The famous enclaves aren't the peak anymore.
22.4% of US businesses now use AI, according to new Census Bureau survey
Business AI use has climbed from 17.3% last November to 22.4% in August. Meanwhile 55% of workers say they use AI on the job, and 9.4% of businesses do not know whether they use it at all.
The US cities where English is not the main language at home
In Hialeah, Florida, just 7.4 percent of residents speak only English at home. Border cities, immigrant gateways, and California working suburbs each get there a different way.
The South drove most US population growth, but the South's growth engine is now slowing down
Five southern states produced three-fifths of all US population growth this decade. New Census estimates show that engine slowing sharply, with Florida's domestic migration collapsing from 310,892 to 22,517 in three years.
Waldorf, Maryland became a Black-majority suburb and got richer doing it
The DC-area town went from 32 percent Black to 61 percent since 2000 while median income climbed to $116,089. Its county now out-earns Prince George's, the most famous affluent Black-majority county in America.
Census report claims 500 noncitizen voters in Wisconsin. Researchers say the methodology cannot support it
The report counts anyone without attached proof of citizenship as a noncitizen voter. Researchers say that kind of data matching produces far more false hits than the 24,000 the report claims to have found.
Is census data confidential? What Title 13 actually protects
Title 13 bars the Census Bureau from giving your answers to any other agency, with no exception for law enforcement or the courts. The guarantee has been broken once, in 1942, and the methods that protect published statistics are being rewritten this year.
The Census Bureau reported a 10.5% drop in new home sales
Sales ran at an annual rate of 607,000, and the headline decline carries a margin of plus or minus 14 percent. Of fifteen figures in the release, only three are statistically significant.
Where America's veterans live, and which wars they came home from
About 16.2 million Americans are veterans, and in one North Carolina county more than one in five residents has served. The map is base towns, and the generational makeup is shifting fast.
Mail carriers are collecting census answers, and two cities are testing two different rules
For the first time, postal workers are gathering census data in Spartanburg and Huntsville. In one city they collect on their mail route; in the other they're hired separately. That difference is the whole confidentiality question.
Mary is the most-given girl's name in 49 states
Across every birth Social Security has recorded since 1910, Mary tops 49 of 51 states. The boys' map is a four-way split between Robert, James, Michael, and John, and it traces when each state grew.
The cities where most households don't own a car
In New York City, 55.3 percent of households have no vehicle. But car-free means two opposite things depending on the city, and the statistic alone won't tell you which one you're looking at.
The counties where Americans never move
On Staten Island, 94.3 percent of people lived in the same house a year ago. In one Iowa county it's 71.4 percent. The most rooted places in America are suburbs, and the most transient are college towns.
How the census shapes American politics
If House seats were reapportioned on today's population estimates, seven would move. Texas and Florida would gain two each, California would lose two, and Rhode Island would fall to a single representative.
Where disability rates are highest in America
In one eastern Kentucky county, nearly one in three residents reports a disability. The map traces Appalachia and the rural South, and three forces stack up to produce it.
Census Bureau report claims 24,000 noncitizens voted in 2020, but experts question how it got there
The unauthored seven-page analysis, promoted by President Trump, amounts to 0.019 percent of the votes it examined. Georgia's own audit found fewer than a dozen noncitizen voters where the report counts 400.
The largest metro areas in America
More than 20 million people live in the New York metro, more than any state but California, Texas, and Florida. The 12 biggest US metro areas, and why the list looks nothing like the biggest cities.