Making Sense of the Census

By Rebecca Winters

The U.S. Census Bureau last week reported new figures on income, occupation, immigration and other demographic issues covered by its year 2000 long-form questionnaire. But depending on which newspaper you read, you got a very different picture of how the nation fared in the 1990s.

--THE NEW YORK TIMES headlined its downbeat Page One story GAINS OF '90S DID NOT LIFT ALL, CENSUS SHOWS. The story cited data indicating that 9.2% of families were deemed poor in 2000, only a slight improvement from 10% in 1989, despite the decade's surging economy. Huge growth in immigration paralleled the economic gains, the paper said, creating "a barbell economy of extreme haves and have-nots."

--THE WASHINGTON POST called the glass half full in its Page One story, headlined '90S BOOM HAD BROAD IMPACT; 2000 CENSUS CITES INCOME GROWTH AMONG POOR, UPPER MIDDLE CLASS. The piece noted that the proportion of households at the low end, earning less than $15,000 a year, shrank, and the Midwest and South fared especially well in the 1990s, with income rising and poverty declining more than the national average.

--THE WALL STREET JOURNAL in its Page 6 story led with a point that made the last line of the Times story and was not mentioned at all in the Post's: the median U.S. household income rose almost 8% faster than inflation during the 1990s, reaching $41,994 by 1999.

All three papers noted one piece of bad news: the average commute to work is now longer, 25.5 min. each way, up 3 min. from 1989. --By Rebecca Winters