Author
Tim Henderson
The number of births continues to fall, despite abortion bans
Births continued a historic slide in all but two states last year, making it clear that a brief post-pandemic uptick in the nation’s birth numbers was all about planned pregnancies that had been delayed temporarily by COVID-19. Only Tennessee and North Dakota had small increases in births from 2022 to 2023, according to a Stateline […]
Southern states had most of the nation’s population growth
Southern states continued to get the lion’s share of new residents this year as Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina added almost 1.2 million people among them. The South was the only region that drew net new residents from other states. Meanwhile, the national population grew by 1.6 million people from births and […]
Residents of Midwest, Mountain West see biggest pay bump
Residents of some Midwestern and Mountain states gained the most income per capita during the past four years, a Stateline analysis shows, as competition for workers drove up wages in relatively affordable places to live. With the COVID-19 pandemic now in the nation’s rearview mirror, Stateline’s analysis offers a more complete understanding of how some […]
Death rates for people under 40 have skyrocketed. Blame fentanyl.
A new Stateline analysis shows that U.S. residents under 40 were relatively unscathed by COVID-19 in the pandemic but fell victim to another killer: accidental drug overdose deaths. Death rates in the age group were up by nearly a third in 2021 over 2018, and last year were still 21% higher. COVID-19 was a small […]
A ‘she-cession’ no more: After COVID dip, women’s employment hits all-time high
After fears of a “she-cession” during the pandemic, women have returned to the workforce at unprecedented rates. Much of the gain reflects a boom in jobs traditionally held by women, including nursing and teaching.? Many good-paying jobs in fields such as construction and tech management are still dominated by men, a continuing challenge for states […]
Despite pandemic pay boost, low-wage workers still can’t afford basic needs
Employers grappling with a nationwide labor shortage gave the largest pay increases to low-wage workers between 2019 and last year. But even so, many of those workers — more than 40% of all U.S. households, by one estimate — are struggling to cover the inflated costs of basic expenses. In the past several years, businesses […]
Kentucky births increased last year bucking national trend
Fast-growing Texas and Florida had the biggest increases in the number of births last year, while a dozen other states — half of them in the South, including Kentucky — continued to rebound from pandemic lows. In the United States as a whole, however, the number of births has plateaued after a modest increase following […]