The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has released a new issue brief that is of great significance to those of us interested in demographic data on older adults and, more importantly, those who help funders and policy makers understand the issues facing older adults by interpreting those data properly.  The brief is entitled, "Why Did Poverty Drop for the Elderly?" and it is authored by Alicia H. Munnell, April Wu, and Josh Hurwitz.  In it, Dr. Munnell and her colleagues analyze a curious statistical anomaly that recently arose from U.S. Census data. The anomaly is that between 2008 and 2009, when the rate of poverty increased across nearly every social strata in the United States, it actually appeared to decrease among the elderly.

We recently received an inquiry from a Seniors Count! community partner, asking:

This is a tricky question. The American Community Survey (ACS) data, as we've explained before, uses sample sizes too small to derive reliable estimates for geographies below the county level. Pooling the data into 3-year samples helps us drill down to smaller geographies, but in the case of the 2006-2008 ACS, the samples are still not large enough to capture any of the five small Grosse Pointe municipalities (Grosse Pointe Farms, Grosse Pointe Park, Grosse Pointe Shores, Grosse Pointe Woods, or Grosse Pointe City). The 5-year ACS samples are purported to be large enough, but they are not yet available. The 2000 Decennial Census would get us to the city level easily, but those data are already 10 years old and, knowing that the area has lost significant population in the last 10 years, I would be very reluctant to use the old figures. However...

We recently received an inquiry from a Seniors Count! community partner, asking:

The definitive population estimates are produced by the Census' Population Estimates Program. We had a related question back in August, in which we gave the estimates for four of the counties. Here are the Census Bureau's best estimates for all seven Southeast Michigan counties:

We received this question recently:

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...It has been suggested to me that I use the American Community survey to examine disability characteristics within Genesee county instead of the 2000 U.S. Census. I discovered that the American Community Survey did not contain information for Genesee county by census tract. Therefore I have decided to wait until December to use the 2010 U.S. Census data.

Q1.  Do you have any suggestions regarding the use of the latest census data?  On the website (census.gov), it indicates that the census data will be available on December. Is it possible to receive the latest data on December for the study?
Q2. If not, the latest American Community Survey looks not having the census tracts. Do you have any suggestions where I need to go to find the appropriate data?...

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