FOR RELEASE SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

Using Census Data To Track Change Since 9/11/2001

Census data can be used to measure change since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, as illustrated by a Wall Street Journal story about lower Manhattan. The Census Bureau itself has published a case study of how one group used census data to argue successfully for an expanded relief-distribution zone in New York's Chinatown.

BY D’Vera Cohn

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RECOMMENDED CITATION

Pew Research Center, September 2011, "Using Census Data To Track Change Since 9/11/2001"

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Table of contents

Using Census Data To Track Change Since 9/11/2001

Census data can be used to measure change since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, as illustrated by a Wall Street Journal story about lower Manhattan. The Census Bureau itself has published a case study of how one group used census data to argue successfully for an expanded relief-distribution zone in New York's Chinatown.

Census Bureau data can be a useful tool to track trends in population size and characteristics since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The Wall Street Journal, using data for census tracts, compared figures from Census 2000 and Census 2010 to report on growth in the past decade in lower Manhattan, once the site of the twin World Trade Towers. It’s now one of New York City’s fastest-growing residential areas. NY1, a web-based news site, did a similar report in July, reporting that single men and young families were among the top demographic groups moving in.

Another take comes from the Gotham Gazette, where sociologist Andrew Beveridge used data from the Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns to look at employment changes in lower Manhattan.

The Census Bureau included a 9/11 case study in a 2003 publication detailing how a New York City organization successfully used 2000 Census data  to expand the boundaries of the relief-distribution zone used by government and private aid groups in the Chinatown area. The organization argued that the proposed boundaries “were not capturing the Chinatown population that was affected by the 9/11 attacks.”