NC in Focus: Young Adults, Then and Now

By on 12.11.14 in Fun Maps, NC in Focus

"Young adults today, often called the millennial generation, are more likely to be foreign born and speak a language other than English at home, compared with young adults in 1980." - U.S. Census Bureau press release The U.S. Census Bureau released the most recent 5-year American Community Survey data last week, covering 2009-2013. In conjunction with this, they also released a new edition of Census Explorer, a collaborative effort with Social Explorer to produce interactive…

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North Carolina’s Hispanic Population: Social Characteristics

Monday, September 15th, through Wednesday, October 15th, marks National Hispanic Heritage Month. In 2012, there were 845,420 Hispanics living in the state, nearly 9% of the state’s total population. In yesterday’s post, I looked at some of the components of this population’s growth. Today, I’ll look at some social characteristics. Place of Birth Just over half (53%) of North Carolina Hispanics were born in the United States or a U.S. territory; 47% were foreign-born. Examining the…

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What language does your county speak?

In a previous post, I looked at changes in the number and type of non-English languages spoken at home in North Carolina over time. Today, I’m looking at variation in languages spoken across space; that is, how do languages spoken vary across North Carolina counties? At an initial glance, there is little county-to-county variation. The majority of individuals age 5 and over in each county speak only English at home. Of those that speak another…

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Top 10 Non-English Languages Spoken in North Carolina

I’ve heard someone joke that, prior to 1980, there were two languages spoken in North Carolina: English and bad English. This probably runs fairly true to most people’s day-to-day experiences before the more recent wave of immigration. In 1980, just over 2% of North Carolina residents age 5 and older, or 130,640 individuals, spoke a language other than English at home. Today, nearly 11% speak a language other than English at home, representing nearly a…

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