In California, spending on adults with disabilities differs by ‘race and place’
The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 Current Population Survey (CPS), like every survey produced by the government – and in this case the Census Bureau – can only account for a limited number of people by race and place. Since the last ten years of the previous cycle, the CPS has been changing how it provides estimates of racial and ethnic groups.
Before there was the 2012 Current Population Survey, there was the decennial census. The 2010 edition of the decennial census, which is used by the Census Bureau to provide its official estimates for the federal budget, provided estimates of race and ethnicity by census tract. Census tracts were constructed using Census Design and Sampling methods.
In the previous decade, the Census of 2010 became the most recent edition of the decennial census as the Census of 2000, which was used in the previous decade to produce official estimates of race and ethnicity. Since 2000, the Census Bureau has provided much less detailed information about race and ethnicity than before.
The Census Bureau does not provide estimates for the entire U.S. population, but only for the total population in the 2010 decennial census tract. For example, in the 2012 CPS, for adults age 18 and over in the 2010 census tracts with more than 100,000 residents, the Census Bureau estimated that about 14 percent were White, 6.2 percent were American Indian or Alaska Native, 4.2 percent were non-Hispanic black, and 4.8 percent were Hispanic.
The Census of 2000 did not provide a breakdown of race and ethnicity by U.S. Census tract. The Census Bureau has created a new table for 2011 – 2012 censuses that provides estimates of race and ethnicity by census tract. The race and ethnicity of adults 18 and over are based on Census 2000 race and ethnicity estimates.
Some people in small towns and rural areas in particular feel left out of the racial and ethnic estimates available in U.S. Census Bureau surveys.
The Census Bureau’s 2011-2012 estimates of race and ethnicity by census tract are based on the 2010 Census estimates, which are based on the decennial census conducted every 10 years.
In the 2010 Census, the Census Bureau has