How the US Changed in 2011

A team of Brookings Institution researchers present five key findings about Americans and how the country grew in 2011 according to 2010 Census data.

1 minute read

January 3, 2012, 11:00 AM PST

By Judy Chang


A cascade of statistics from the 2010 Census and other Census Bureau sources released during 2011 show a nation in flux-growing and moving more slowly as it ages, infused by racial and ethnic minorities and immigrants in its younger ranks, and struggling economically across a decade bookended by two recessions. The nation's largest metropolitan areas, and especially their suburbs, stood on the front lines of America's evolving demographic transformation.

Finding II details how Americans are "increasingly stuck at home":

"The migration slowdown reversed in part the tide that swept many Americans into Sun Belt areas like Las Vegas and Orlando during the first half of the decade. One upshot is that population losses from many former "feeder" areas, such as New York, Los Angeles, and Boston have slowed considerably, especially among migrants with college degrees. Meanwhile, Austin, Dallas, and Denver displaced Riverside, Phoenix, and Atlanta from the list of metro areas gaining the most young migrants at the end of the decade."

Tuesday, December 20, 2011 in Brookings Institution

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