COVID-19 strains household broadband Internet access across North Carolina

By on 9.3.20 in Education

Since office and school closures began in response to the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year, remote workers and students across the state have been feeling the effects of decreased network speed and sputtering performance on their home networks, leading some to question whether their home internet service is up to the task of keeping them connected with remote co-workers, classmates, and professors. It has even led some policy makers to question if now is the time to reconsider whether high-speed internet should continue to be viewed as a high-tech luxury, or simply a necessity of modern life.

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Rising Attainment Among North Carolina’s Degree-Earners

Forty-three percent of North Carolina’s adults aged 25-64 held some type of postsecondary degree in 2017—just over 2.3 million residents in the state. This share has risen five percentage points since 2010, and ten since 2000. In total, North Carolina gained 932K working-age adults with an Associate degree or higher from 2000 to 2017, and among these adults, the level of degree attainment continues to rise. In 2000, the majority of NC adults aged 25-64…

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NC in Focus: 2016 Veteran Snapshot

Just over 666,000 veterans lived in North Carolina in 2016 according to the most recent American Community Survey estimates. This is a decrease of roughly 15,000 veterans or -2.2% from 2013, the year we last profiled North Carolina’s veterans. Nationally, the veteran population decreased at an even faster rate over this time (-5.6%). The U.S. veteran population declined from 19.6 million in 2013 to 18.5 million in 2016, a loss of 1.1 million veterans. While…

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NC in Focus: 4-year on-time High School graduation rate

By on 3.19.15 in Education

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) regularly releases data summarizing selected school performance measures. The four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate is calculated by dividing the number of regular high school diplomas earned within four-years (“on-time”) by an “adjusted cohort.” The adjusted cohort begins with all individuals who entered 9th grade four years previously. It then adds to this group all individuals who transferred in between Grade 9 and graduation and subtracts students who transferred…

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NC Veterans 2013 Data Snapshot

2013 American Community Survey data estimates more than 681,000 veterans living in North Carolina. This is a notable decrease from 2012, when an estimated 720,500 veterans were living in the state. Since the non-veteran NC population is not decreasing, the proportion of North Carolina veteran residents decreased from 9.8% of the total state population to 9.1% from 2012 to 2013. Click here to view last year’s NC veteran data snapshot. The decline of North Carolina’s veteran…

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NC in Focus: Explore Science and Engineering Indicators by State

The National Science Board (NSB) recently released an interactive, online resource with data and graphics about student proficiency, college degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, and jobs in science-related occupations. While examining this data, I stumbled across a second web resource related to the NSB’s Science and Engineering Indicators 2014. The S&E Indicators State Data Tool provides data on 59 state indicators, such as elementary and secondary education metrics, the size of…

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Sweet Home Carolina

By on 4.7.14 in Migration

North Carolina is a sticky state; only Texas is stickier. (And I’m not talking about humidity.) “Sticky” states have a high percentage of adults who were born in the state still living there. Just as migration patterns highlight the relative appeal of a location—individuals tend to move to areas with greater opportunities and away from those without them—“stickiness” may be another gauge of an area’s attractiveness. The same educational and employment opportunities that bring people…

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