The Community Research Collaborative Blog

Cincinnati’s Middle Class

By: John Besl

What’s the relative size of the middle class in Cincinnati, and how does it compare to other large places across the country?  A recent study from Brookings employs the 2013 American Community Survey (ACS) to examine the income distribution of households nationwide and in all places with populations of at least 65,000.  Going by the national income distribution, many cities retain a sizable middle class, but Cincinnati is not one of them.  Among 72 large cities, those with 100,000 households or more, Cincinnati ranked 63^rd in the share of households classified as middle class.  

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Asians Largest Group of New Arrivals among Cincinnati’s Foreign-Born Population

By: Janet Harrah

This month’s post examines the changing demographics of the region’s foreign-born population.  A recent Census Bureau blog post noted that in recent years, China has replaced Mexico as the top sending country for immigrants to the United States.  The data show the top sending region for immigrants residing in the Cincinnati MSA is Asia as well. 

In 2013, the Cincinnati MSA had a foreign-born population of approximately 93,700.  Of those, 42 percent arrived from Asia, followed by Latin America (24 percent), and Europe (17 percent).

Let's take a look at Cincinnati's foreign-born population broken down by their region of origin:

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New Kids on the Block: Child Migration Patterns, Part 2

By: John Besl

In my last blog entry, I wrote about a measure of neighborhood residential mobility that’s derived from the American Community Survey.  Since the measure is based on responses from a small sample of the population, there’s some degree of uncertainty associated with the tract-level estimates.  Besides that limitation, the ACS-based mobility measure represents a short time frame, a single year.  In this post, I take a longer view – 10 years – and develop a synthetic estimate of child migration derived from the last two decennial census enumerations.  The new measure relies on the ironclad assurance that children who were counted in the 2000 Census will be 10 years older when enumerated in the 2010 Census.  We would expect that a residentially stable community (i.e., where migration is low) would see little change between the 2000 Census count of children in the preschool age range of 0 to 4 and the 2010 Census count at ages 10 to 14.

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County Health Rankings a great resource, but be sure to read the fine print

By: Jennifer Chubinski, in collaboration with Susan Sprigg, a public health consultant to Interact for Health

What are the County Health Rankings?

The County Health Rankings are part of an annual report that ranks the health of each county in the country. Every year the release of the rankings creates a tremendous amount of media interest about which counties are doing better or worse. When I am out in the community, I hear about a lot of groups using the rankings to measure progress on their work. While I am thrilled at the use of high quality data, I often have to caution community groups about tracking their progress based on changes in their year-to-year ranking. Please continue reading to understand why.

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Our Region on the Move

By: John Besl

One of the truisms of demography is that there are only three components of population change: birth, death, and migration.  We have little choice in the timing of our birth or death, but as adults we typically have a great deal of control in migration decisions, that is, the choice to move from one residence to another.  I first became interested in the field of population studies back in the 1980s upon reading stories in the popular press about individuals and families moving from the “Rust Belt” to the “Sun Belt” in the face of plant closings.  Northern cities like Detroit and Youngstown, Ohio became symbols of the economic dislocation of that era, losing huge shares of their resident populations.  Meanwhile, southern cities like Houston and Atlanta attracted northern migrants and grew rapidly.

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Access to Healthcare

By: Jennifer Chubinski

In my last blog, I wrote about what we call, “up-stream factors” in health.  Those are health behaviors that could help you live a longer and healthier life.  Those behaviors were: not smoking, eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, and limiting alcohol consumption.  While these behaviors are helpful in keeping you healthy, it is also important to have access to regular healthcare for regular check-ups or when you are sick.  So what does healthcare access look like for adults in Greater Cincinnati (results based on the 2013 Greater Cincinnati Health Status Survey)?

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Do you want to live longer?

By: Jennifer Chubinski

According to a study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, four health behaviors contribute to a longer life. Those health behaviors are: not smoking, eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, and limiting alcohol consumption. 

As a region how are we doing on these health behaviors? 

Results from the recent 2013 Greater Cincinnati Community Health Status Survey (CHSS) show that we are making progress, but still have a long way to go. 

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The Graying of America, Revisited

By: John Besl

In the most recent set of population projections released in 2012 by the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States’ population at ages 65 and over is expected to double in just 30 years, from 40 million in 2010 to 80 million in 2040, when one in five Americans will be 65 or older.  Take a good look around – you’ll never again see as many younger people, proportionally, as you do today. 

The overall U.S. population is projected to grow by 23%, or 71 million persons, over the same 30-year period in which the older population is expected to grow by 40 million.  Seniors will account for 55% of overall population growth nationwide. 

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“It’s a mother’s job to worry about her kids”

By: Janice Urbanik

In the last 24 hours I’ve had 2 reminders that it is indeed a mother’s job to worry about her kids.  One happened while I was trimming dead limbs from a tree and a mama robin chirped very loudly because I was too close to her nest.  The other happened when a friend told me that she had just dropped her son off at the airport for a trip to Florida after wrapping up finals week. While it would be hackneyed for me to say these are both examples of birdies leaving the nest (groans are appropriate now…), it is not trite to think about the impact that children have on women who work.

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Getting Acquainted

By: Toby Sallee

Those of you on our blog mailing list have seen my name for a while now, and probably wondered who I am; allow me to formally introduce myself.   I am a researcher at the Community Research Collaborative (CRC) at the Institute for Policy Research.  Starting today, I am also the newest CRC Blogger.

I have often been called a “data person” (or data nerd, wonk, or… well you get the idea)

I spend a large portion of my days buried in national and local data sets-making maps, putting together presentations, and doing analysis- so that assessment is certainly true.  However, my interest in data goes beyond an interest in numbers and measurement.   I am interested in what the data can tell us about our community and how I can best communicate the findings.

Here is a little known fact: My background is in communication.  How did someone with a background in communication end up as a data person (and proud of it)?  I’m glad you asked.

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