Lab Notes is our blog where we talk about the latest demographic, economic, social, and political trends—and whatever else is on our minds. Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest and greatest Lab Notes delivered to your inbox. #LabNotes
May is Mental Health Month, and people are taking wellness seriously. But what does the research say about people’s experience with mental health and obtaining high-quality care? While desiring mental health care is common among Americans, cost, coverage, wait times, and geography currently hamper many as they seek care.
Read MoreThe collective voice of Latino voters was louder in the 2018 midterm elections than any other nonpresidential voting year in history. New data shows the voter turnout rate among eligible Latinos jumped 13 percentage points between the 2014 and 2018 midterm elections, to 40.4%. This enthusiastic leap in voting yielded an additional 4.9 Latino voters, or 11.7 million total. Explore what other features of Latino voting patterns in 2018 stood out.
Read MoreWhile “just the facts” has long been a journalistic credo, research shows that true objectivity is not attainable. Journalists make myriad choices about which facts to privilege, who gets to help communicate them, and how. In our recent survey of nearly 250 Minnesota media professionals, we asked how often People of Color and Indigenous (POCI) people are used as subject matter experts for stories that are not explicitly about race and culture. Seventy-two percent of all professionals surveyed said either rarely or never. Among journalists who themselves identified as POCI, that percentage rose to 84 percent.
Read MoreThe deadly opioid crisis has attracted national media attention. This article offers a brief overview of the crisis, outlining what some researchers call “three intertwined epidemics”: the initial overprescription of opiates, rising deaths from heroin overdose, and finally the deadly impact of synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
Read MoreThe 2020 Census has been in the news more than usual. Here’s six answers to your questions about the upcoming 2020 Census. Get up to speed on the status of question revisions (impacting race, same-sex partners, and possibly citizenship), which states may gain or lose congressional seats, when electoral votes could shift, and more.
Read MoreAt 2.1 percent, Nevada and Idaho led all states in population growth during 2017-2018. The other swiftly growing states were Utah (1.9%), Arizona (1.7%), and Florida and Washington (1.5% apiece). While these states grew the fastest, Texas (+379,100) and Florida (+322,500) added the most people. But why are many states adding population while some now have more elbow room? The story varies quite a bit by state. The mix of births, deaths, and net migration from other states and abroad results in a state’s growing or shrinking population.
Read MoreIn the last 20 years, has the proportion of the world population that is living in extreme poverty (a) almost doubled, (b) remained more or less the same, or (c) almost halved? This is one of the questions in a brief quiz that opens Factfulness, a best-selling book authored by perhaps the most enthusiastic and engaging apostle of data to ever grace a TED talk stage. I have long been a fan of Hans Rosling’s presentations, so I thought a review the book he left us prior to recently passing away would be a good way to start the year.
Read MoreDemocrats took the U.S. House in this fall’s elections, and women made historic gains. But who sent them there? Now that the election results are finally in, here is what the data from our Representing US project are telling us.
Read MoreWhat is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about the role of water in your life? This is one of the questions respondents answered in the qualitative study “How Americans Relate to Water” we recently completed with Wilder Research on behalf of the Water Main. The Water Main aims to “connect people to the value of water” as it “builds public will in support of clean, abundant, accessible water.”
Read More
