More fun with Census information

I wrote once before about the Census data, and now that people have had some time to digest the Statistical Abstract of the United States, there's some more fun data coming out. The New York Times posted this graphic, summarizing some of the behavioral changes over the last 10 years.

Some of the highlights:

• Our red meat consumption per capita decreased by nearly 5%, from 113.7 pounds to 108.3
• But our vegetable consumption decreased much more, by about 7%
• A record 41% of all live births were to unmarried women (yikes)
• 5 states have more pigs than people

Good times.

[New York Times]

Census data released

The results of the recently-completed 2010 Census were released yesterday by the Census Bureau, which (as always) has some interesting data and even more interesting implications. This table breaks out the nation's population change over the last decade by region and by state, revealing trends that are both surprising (Idaho +21.1%?) and not-so-surprising (Michigan -0.6%).

As the above table shows, the majority of U.S. population growth was concentrated in the South and West, with those regions greatly outpacing the growth rates in the Northeast and Midwest. As a result, Texas and Florida will gain 4 and 2 seats, respectively, in the House of Representatives--mostly at the expense of New York and Ohio, who will each lose 2 seats. How you feel about this unmistakable shift to the South is, most likely, largely a result of where you're from.

Other states losing seats include Louisiana, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, while states gaining seats include Washington, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Georgia and South Carolina. This of course reflects the broader shift from Midwest/Northeast to South/West. For better or worse, the changes of these 12 seats will undoubtedly have some impact on our Congress over the next 10 years (or beyond).

[Census.gov]