Another nice explainer from demographer @drjenndowd.bsky.social on how to interpret statistics on birth rates:
“most demographers expect completed cohort fertility rates will trend downwards, but not as dramatically as the birth rate “crisis” narrative implies”
More than 2 million oil and gas wells sit unplugged in the U.S., many leaking contaminants into waterways, farmland and neighborhoods.
Time and time again, oil companies have walked away — leaving taxpayers to pay for cleanup. Here’s how.
(Published Dec. 2024)
NEW: With no authority under the Constitution to change election rules, President Trump has signed an executive order that calls for restricting voting by mail. The order is expected to be challenged in court
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
This, from demographer Francesco Billari, is very good:
“The real choice for political leaders is not whether to accept demographic change. It is whether to continue to fight it symbolically or to start governing it strategically”
www.businessday.co.za/opinion/2026...
Ofd bring back home after 40 years (other than quick visits). Lots have changed even as nothing has.
Me at 50: ah, fuck it!
Even inside of town. I don't think this is good for people to be breathing in. But people will shrug their shoulders and accept that this is the price to pay to survive. An industry making hand over fist, and they can't figure out how to fix this issue? www.theexamination.org/articles/oil...
I have been going back home frequently to take care of my aging mother. Every time I am home, I get nauseated from the smell out in the air. When I was growing up in west Texas, I remember certain places where there was, what the old timers called, "the smell of money," but now it is everywhere...
When I lecture to students about how the apparently thriving economy of the 1920s was really a house of cards just waiting to be knocked down, one of the points I stress is how much a small number of the very rich were essentially propping up consumer spending in unsustainable ways
MAHA 2
www.bakerinstitute.org/research/rea...
For First Time in Decades, Child Deaths Will Rise This Year
Thanks in no small part to DOGE cuts to USAID
www.wsj.com/health/for-f...
Not sure there is a "Texas style" anymore - DCI has seemed to taken over everywhere (except maybe in East Texas where they are still marching like the Aggies).
Should we tell Buzz Aldrin?
And I don't recall Texas Tech (my Alma mater) being ranked in the top 10.
Table
Demography is science, but it's not rocket science. Journalists and related professionals could understand crude birth rate, general fertility rate, and total fertility rate - and use the terms consistently. So I made this annotated table: familyinequality.wordpress.com/2025/10/03/l...
Happy (belated) Constitution Day.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Happy Constitution Day.
Too late. Recovering from it now.
Wow, that was fast!
Don't underestimate how valuable trustworthy data from the US government underpinned big decisions and how that is being rapidly undermined.
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
“It’s just completely disheartening. It’s a sign that norms that have long existed are shattered,” says APDU President @amy-ohara.bsky.social about the firing of BLS Commissioner McEnfarfer
fedscoop.com/statistics-p...
Full statement is now on our website
apdu.org?p=5813739
#econsky
US economic data quality a worry, authorities not acting urgently enough, experts say (Reuters poll)
www.reuters.com/business/us-...
Data Rescue Project Portal is live!!!
“Historically, no one lived past age 35”
"I’ve heard *so* many versions of this claim, including recently from a menopause doctor (implying menopause is not “natural” because noone lived long enough to go through it). Every time someone states this “fact,” a demographer loses a piece of their soul"
NEW: Census Bureau lost over 1,000 employees through early retirement and voluntary separation offers in recent months and plans to cut some statistical work, acting Director Ron Jarmin says. "It feels a little bit like Thanos snapped his finger and a lot of your friends and colleagues went away..."
Great job Aishwarya! 4th place. Way to represent.
