Demographics

Demographic data from the census can be used to describe the racial and ethnic characteristics of an area. Racial and ethnic data are given for the total population, and then for the population by age categories zero through seventeen. Racial categories are white, black, American Indian, Eskimo, or Aleutian or Pacific Islander, and other races. Remember that racial categories do not include Hispanic, since Hispanics include black, white, and other races. Hispanics are identified as an ethnic group by the U.S. census, and are subdivided into Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other Hispanic. Ethnic origin refers to Hispanic origin only, and does not include people of other European, Asian, or African ethnicities, e.g. Irish, Japanese, or Kenyan.

The numbers and percents for the racial categories for any group given in the demographics section (i.e., total population, population ages zero through two, population ages three through five, etc.) should add up to 100 percent. The ethnic or Hispanic origin numbers and percents are not related to the racial numbers and percent-do not add Hispanic numbers or percents to racial numbers or percents.

Census data tells us that the population of minority groups in the United States has been growing over the past decades, especially in the last ten years, due in part to immigration and a higher fertility rates among these groups. Demographers indicate that minority populations will continue to grow over the next two decades. Minority populations are disproportionately disadvantaged in terms of family income, access to health care, access to high-quality education, and employment opportunities. We can use demographic numbers from the census as denominators when calculating percents of people served by particular aid programs as a percent of total number of people in a certain age or racial group.

The measurement of race is being changed through the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) which released new guidelines to OMB Directive 15 in July 1997.  Developed in 1977, the original Directive 15 describes four races (Native American or Alaskan Native; Asian or Pacific Islander; Black; and White) and two ethnic categories (of Hispanic origin and not of Hispanic origin). Although the Directive notes the absence of scientific or anthropological foundations in its formulation, race and ethnic categories are used in federal scientific research and, as such, serve as a basis for interpreting research findings, ranging from biomedical to economic research. However, race and ethnicity categories used by the census have changed over time and rely upon an inconsistent mixture of principles and criteria, including national origin, language, minority status and physical characteristics. Since 1900, 26 different racial terms have been used to identify populations on the US Census.
The concept of race is a social and cultural construction, with no basis in human biology.   Race can simply not be tested or
proven scientifically, according to the American Anthropological Association (AAA).   In addition, many Americans do not understand differences between race, ethnicity and ancestry categories in surveys, and fail to distinguish between them.  The new OMB Directive will change the way the Year 2000 census defines race and present new challenges for analysis and trending of data.

Socioeconomic Data

Socioeconomic data available from the census data include children living in poverty by age groups, single-householder families living in poverty, children living in households with unemployed parents, number of adults with a high school education, unemployment figures for an area, and the primary language spoken in the home.

Socioeconomic data are important to public health analysis because certain socioeconomic data are strong risk markers, or indicators, for unfavorable health outcomes such as low birth weight, child neglect and abuse, and teenage pregnancy.

To understand the socioeconomic data from the U.S. census, we need to understand how the census defines several key terms-household, householder, family, and related child.

Household-all the persons who occupy a housing unit.

Householder- In most cases, a householder is the person, or one of the persons, in whose name the home is owned, being bought, or rented, or any adult household member fifteen years old or over designated as the householder for purposes of the census.

Family-a householder and one or more other persons living in the same household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. All persons in a household who are related to the householder are regarded as members of his or her family. A household can contain only one family for purposes of the census.

Related child-a son or daughter by birth, a stepchild, or an adopted child. The term does not include foster children.

Examples of socioeconomic risk markers or indicators of unfavorable health outcomes for children, and why they are important to consider in a public health analysis are described below.

Poverty

Although the mean income of families with children has risen over the last thirty years-due to an increase in family income and a decrease in the average number of children per family, more families with children than ever before are economically insecure. Children in poor families in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods have the most health and behavioral problems. These children have lower literacy levels and higher rates of dropping out of high school. They have a greater exposure to violence. Poverty affects access to health care and availability of services and has been linked with higher levels of child neglect and abuse.

Today, one in five children in the United States lives in a family below the federal poverty level. Nationwide, almost 13 million children live in poverty, more than 2 million more than ten years ago. Of these children, almost 5 million live in families with incomes less than half the federal poverty level. Minority children are much more likely to live in a poor family. Children living in a single-parent family, especially if that parent is a mother, are likely to be poor.

Single-householder families

Children growing up in families with one parent are more likely to be poor than children in families with two parents. When the single parent is a mother, the risk factor for poverty increases. Nationwide, about 43 percent of single-mother families live below poverty, compared to only about 7 percent of two-parent families. If the mothers are not working, these children are very likely to be poor. While poverty among two-parent families usually fluctuates with the economy, poverty among single-mother families remains constant-among these families, sustained poverty for seven or more years is common, whereas this is rare for two-parent families. The average income of single-mother families is only about 40 percent of the average income of two-parent families at the same age. The economic status of single-mother families is often exacerbated by the failure of absent fathers to pay child support.

Single-householder families living below poverty with children under age five

This is a combination of two major socioeconomic risk factors.

Children living with one or two parents and all parents are unemployed

When no parents are unemployed in a family with children, the children are at even more risk for the unfavorable outcomes associated with poverty, listed above.

To make use of census data, an understanding of file organization is important. This discussion will be limited to the data found on the CR-ROM version of the STFs, discussed earlier in this module. The CD-ROM is packaged with browsing software called "GO" that was developed by the Census Bureau to simplify retrieval of summary tables. Once the CD is in the drive, all the user has to do is to start the program is type: GO. You may then select the geographic area of interest and then the data item of interest. The data is stored in the CD-ROM in a database format. When copying the data for use elsewhere, the user is given the options of database field (*.dbf) and ASCII (delimited or fixed). It is important to note that a single data item selected (such as poverty by age) is stored as a separate database table and each group you see displayed is a separate variable in the data table. Therefore, in the case of poverty by age, if you want create a variable for number and percent of persons under age 18 under poverty you would need to sum each age variable (0-4, 5, 6-13, and so forth) that makes up the total number of persons under 18 years.

Careful attention must be paid to calculating the denominator you will use to obtain your percent variable. Each database table has a universe of values, e.g., persons whom the data was obtained, households, families, and so forth. For example, if a table describes the universe as being "persons greater than or equal to age 25" then the denominator used for any variable within the table must be the total number of persons greater than or equal to age 25. This variable may be obtained by creating a total for all categories in the table or through totaling the number of persons in the age group using the able for age. The totals between the tables may or may not match. This may be due to suppression or other reasons unknown to this author. In either case, the safest method is to use the total for the table that was the source of the numerator.

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