One last look at the graying of America, this time at the county level. Let's start with the extremes. The county that aged the most dramatically over the past 50 years is Sumter County in Florida. In 1970, its median age was 30. By 2020, it jumped to 67.3. The explanation is pretty straightforward: the … Continue reading Where We Are Getting Older

Let's look at other ways to visualize how America has aged in the past fifty years. At the end of the previous post, I introduced histograms based on ten-year age ranges. Here's a different view of the same data, comparing 1970 with 2020 In 1970, the red and yellow layers (ages 5-24) were the baby … Continue reading Visualizing the Graying of America

The US is getting older. No surprise there; they've been talking about it for years now. Here's how the median age of US residents has changed over the past 50 years: In less than a lifetime the median age of Americans has increased by ten years - pretty remarkable (it's even more dramatic in some … Continue reading The Graying of America

The US Census reports on categories of bachelor's degrees. Here are the total number of degrees for each category (adults 25 and older): Science and Engineering        Computers, Mathematics and Statistics3,951,250        Biological, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences5,147,583        Physical and Related Sciences2,560,403        Psychology4,113,655        Social Sciences6,616,450        Engineering6,211,477        Multidisciplinary Studies706,006Science and Engineering Related Fields7,946,691Business16,014,419Education9,196,618Arts, Humanities, and Other        Literature and Languages3,639,258        Liberal Arts and History4,023,390        Visual and Performing Arts3,470,871        Communications3,363,235        Other4,864,197[Most of these … Continue reading Degree Popularity

Let's think about how education level affects mobility. Here's a chart that shows the percentage of adults (25 years or older, born in the US) who live in the state where they were born: The categories are: High School diploma or less Associates degree, or some college Bachelor's degree Post-graduate or professional degree From the … Continue reading Education and Mobility

Here's some more analysis of data provided by the University of California, regarding applications to UC by high school seniors in California. The application to UC is done via a single portal - students can apply to multiple UC campuses simply by checking boxes. Well, and paying $70 per box. The average applicant applies to … Continue reading UC Campus Application Popularity

In the collectable card world there's a thing called a "superfractor". Besides having a cool reflective coating, these cards are rare because only one of each is produced. This scarcity creates a high value. Recently a sports card memorabilia dealer offered $250,000 for any who found the superfractor autograph card of Druw Jones, a up-and-coming … Continue reading An Easy Choice

The University of California publishes a trove of data regarding applications by high school seniors. For each high school in the state (public and private), it lists the number of applications to each UC campus (and to the UC system as a whole). The data also include the admission rate (how many applications were accepted … Continue reading Enrollment Rate at UC

Let's talk about education. The US Census' American Community Survey (ACS) provides lots of data about education attainment. The most detailed survey categorizes seven levels of education:         Less than 9th grade         9th to 12th grade, no diploma         High school graduate (includes equivalency)         Some college, no degree         Associate's degree         Bachelor's degree         Graduate or professional degree I've … Continue reading A First Look at Education

An interesting story came out of this past weekend of NFL games. In the second quarter of the Chargers-Jaguars game, with the Chargers winning 27-0, a gambler placed a live bet on the Chargers to win. Since the Chargers were pretty much a sure thing at that point, the moneyline he got (in real time, … Continue reading Shoo-In of the Week