Statistical Abstract, 2012 Press Notes

POPULATION

Between April 1, 2000 and April 1, 2010 there was a 9.7 percent increase in the resident 

population of the United States. The state with the highest percentage increase in resident 

population during the same time period was Nevada (35.1), while the only state that 

experienced a decrease was Michigan (-0.6). (Table 14)

The percentage of women 65 years old and over employed in the labor force grew to 12.9 

in 2010 compared to 8.4 in 1990. (Table 34) 

In 2009, 43.1 percent of persons 5 years old and over in California spoke a language 

other than English at home, more than any other state. (Table 54)

BIRTHS, DEATHS, MARRIAGES, AND DIVORCE

Among women between the ages of 15-to 29- years who had a child in the last year, 53 

percent of those with less than a high school degree were not living with a spouse or 

partner, whereas, 85 percent of women with a Bachelor’s degree or higher were married 

with their spouse present. Comparing living arrangements of 15- to 29- year-old women 

who had a child in the last year, twice as many with some college (17 percent) were 

cohabiting as compared to only 8 percent of those with a Bachelor’s degree or more. 

Women with some college were nearly six times more likely than those with a college 

degree to not be living with a spouse or a partner in 2010. (Table 90)

Among adult men and women between the ages of 18 and 44; nearly 96 percent of men 

identified themselves as heterosexual or straight, two percent identified themselves as 

homosexual or gay, and 1 percent identified themselves as bisexual. In comparison, 

almost 94 percent of women identified themselves as heterosexual or straight, 1 percent 

as homosexual or gay, and 3.5 percent as bisexual. (Table 97)

According to data from the American Community Survey, the top 5 states in which the 

highest proportion of men and women got married in 2009 were: Alaska (26.0 per 1,000 

men and 24.7 per 1,000 women), Arkansas (26.4 per 1,000 men and 23.0 per 1,000 

women), Idaho (25.8 per 1,000 men and 25.1 per 1,000 women), North Dakota (26.7 per 

1,000 men and 27.3 per 1,000 women), Utah (29.6 per 1,000 men and 26.7 per 1,000 

women). The top 3 states in which women got divorced were Alaska (16.2 per 1,000 

women), Oklahoma (14.1 per 1,000 women), and Kentucky (13.5 per 1,000 women). The 

top 3 states for men were Arkansas with 13.5 per 1,000 men, Maine with 13.0 per 1,000

men) and Oklahoma with 12.8 divorces per 1,000 male residents. (Table 132)

HEALTH

In 2009, 16.7 percent of people in the United States were not covered by health 

insurance. (Table 155)

EDUCATION
Of the 77.3 million people ages 3 and up enrolled in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools in 2009, 10.4 million (or 13.5%) were in private schools, while 66.9 

million (86.5%) were enrolled in public schools in 2009. (Table 225)

In 2009, almost 11 million students in elementary school and high school had at least one 

foreign-born parent (22.5% of all students in elementary school and high school). 88.4% 

of Asian-alone students, 61.6% of Hispanic students, 14.2% of Black-alone students, and 

20.5% of White-alone students had at least one foreign-born parent. (Table 228)

In 2009, around 2.96 million children lived in “linguistically isolated households,” where 

no one in the household aged 14 or over spoke English “very well.” (Table 236)

LAW ENFORCEMENT, COURTS, and PRISONS

In 2009 there were 6,604 hate crime incidents reported by participating law enforcement

agencies. Nearly half (48%) had a bias motivation of race, 20% had a bias motivation of 

religion, 19% had a bias motivation of sexual orientation, and 12% had a bias motivation 

of ethnicity or national origin. Nearly half of all hate crimes occurred in a residence or 

home (31%) or on a highway road alley or street (17%). (Table 323)

ELECTIONS

In the November election of 2010, 65.1 percent of U.S. citizens reported being registered 

to vote. 45.5 percent reported actually voting in the election. (Table 401)

STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Federal aid to states for local governments increased to $552.1 billion in 2009 from 

$469.8 billion in 2008. (Table 433)

State and local government revenue decreased from $3.1 trillion in 2007 in $2.7 trillion in 

2008 (Table 436)

State and local government indebtedness increased from $2.4 trillion in 2007 to $2.6 

trillion in 2008. Long-term debt increased from $1.67 trillion in 2007 to $1.76 trillion in 

2008 (Table 439) 

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The federal budget debt increased from $13.5 trillion in fiscal year 2010 to an estimated 

$15.5 trillion for Fiscal Year 2011. (Table 470)

The amount of outstanding U.S. Savings Bonds decreased from $175.6 billion dollars in 

2009 to $172.3 billion dollars in 2009. Sales of U.S. Savings Bonds also decreased from 

$3.0 billion to $2.6 billion. (Table 478)

The value of federal individual income tax returns with tax credits increased from $63.8

billion in 2007 to $75.4 billion in 2008. (Table 492)
Federal civilian employment increased from 2,804,000 in 2009 to 2,841,000 in 2010.

(Table 496)

NATIONAL SECURITY

Active duty military payroll increased from $52.2 million to $84.5 million, a percentage 

change of nearly 61 percent from 2008 to 2009. (Table 506)

U.S. active duty military deaths due to accident and self-infliction experienced modest 

declines from 2009 to 2010, 462 to 406 and 288 to 271, respectively. Deaths due to 

hostile action, however, climbed from 346 to 455. (Table 516)

U.S. Military sales deliveries to Israel declined from $1,407 million in 2008 to $747 

million in 2009. Greece, however, increased their purchases over the same period from 

$198 million to $1,292 million. (Table 519)

Deportable aliens located/apprehended declined from 791,568 in 2008 to 613,003 in 

2009. That is less than half the deportations that took place in 2005, when 1,291,142

aliens were located. (Table 530)

SOCIAL INSURANCE

Payments to individuals, consisting of employer and government-sponsored retirement 

income benefits, health benefits, employee benefits, and public assistance, rose from $1.9 

trillion in 2000 to $3.6 trillion in 2009. (Table 538)

Social Security beneficiaries increased from 39.8 million in 1990 to 54.0 million in 2010. 

(Table 546)

The percent of U.S. households owning at least one type of IRA (Individual Retirement 

Account) increased to 41.4 percent in 2010, from 39.3 percent in 2009. (Table 554)

The average weekly number of people receiving state unemployment insurance was 3.3 

million in 2008, an increase of 735,000 recipients from 2007. (Table 558)

LABOR FORCE, EMPLOYMENT, AND EARNINGS

Of the 237.8 million civilian non-institutionalized population 16 years-old and over, 

approximately 26.6 million people have some form of a physical, mental, or emotional 

disability; nearly 5.8 million are in the civilian labor force, of which 4.9 million were 

employed and nearly 1 million were unemployed. (Table 591)

INCOME

In 2010, married couple families with 2 children and incomes between $57,600 and 

$99,730 per year spent around $11,950 per year, per child less than 2 years old. The 

amount rose to $13,830 per child 15-17 years old. The bulk of the expenditures for 

children 15-17 years old were on housing ($3,870), food ($2,470), and child care and 

education ($2,310). (Table 689)
From 1980 to 2009, the poverty threshold for a family of four has increased 161%, from

$8,414 to $21,954. (Table 710) During the same time period, the number of children 

living below the poverty level rose from 11.1 million to more than 14.8 million, an 

increase of 32.9%. (Table 712)

Over the past 10 years (from 1999 to 2009), Wyoming’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 

experienced an increase of 56.4% from 22.7 billion (chained 2005) dollars in 1999 to 

35.5 billion (chained 2005) dollars in 2009. Michigan was the only state to experience a 

negative growth rate during the same time period (-9.9%). The GDP of the U.S. as a 

whole grew 18.7% from 1999 to 2009, but experienced the first negative growth for a 1-

year period for the first time since 1990-1991, shrinking 2.4% between 2008 and 2009. 

(Table 671)

PRICES

Using a baseline of 1991, the national average single-family housing price index in 2010 

was 185.7. States with the highest index levels were Montana (288.5), Wyoming (280.1), 

and Colorado (266.3). The states with the lowest index levels were Nevada (126.1), 

Michigan (145.3), and Ohio (154.1). (Table 729)

The weekly food cost of a nutritious diet for a family of four with children ages 2 to 5 in 

2010 was—

Thrifty plan: $118.10

Low-cost plan: $150.20

Moderate plan: $185.50 

Liberal plan: $229.90.

(Table 732)

Producer Price Indexes (PPIs) (1982=100) continued to experience volatility in 2010 with 

a 21 percent increase from 2009 to 2010; PPIs dropped 30.4 percent from 2008 to 2009. 

(Table 734)

BUSINESS

In 2009, there were roughly 388,000 business startups (businesses less than 1 year old),

which created 2.2 million jobs. While service industry firms aged 1-10 years experienced 

the largest number of firm deaths (212,000), the manufacturing industry experienced the 

greatest amount of job loss due to firm deaths and contractions, losing almost 1.3 million 

jobs. All industries together suffered a net job loss of 4.8 million in 2009. (Table 764)

Of the 27.1 million U.S. firms in 2007, nearly 7.8 million were women-owned and 5.8 

million were minority-owned. Together, women and minority-owned businesses earned 

more than $2.2 trillion in sales. (Table 768)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

U.S. spending on research and development (R&D) totaled $398 billion (current dollars) 

in 2008, up from $373 billion in 2007. This increase represented growth in 2008 of 6.7% 

over the 2007 level. (Table 799)
The annual mean earnings for an occupation in science and engineering was $76,680 in 

2008 compared to $42,270 annual mean earnings for all occupations. (Table 819)

AGRICULTURE

The 2009 Census of Horticulture counted 21,585 operations in the United States with 

sales of 11.7 billion dollars. The land area used to grow these horticultural crops was 

comprised of 859 thousand square feet of greenhouses and 572 thousand acres of area in 

the open. (Table 868)

NATURAL RESOURCES

Domestic catch of fish decreased from 8.3 billion pounds in 2008 to 7.9 billion pounds in 

2009. (Table 896)

Preliminary estimates on mining fatalities showed a large increase from the 2009 number 

of 34. There were 71 fatalities for the year 2010. (Table 902)

Number of crude oil producing wells as of December 31, 2009 remained the same at 

526,000. The daily output increased from 9.4 thousand barrels in 2008 to 10.1 thousand

barrels in 2009. (Table 910)

Natural Gas Plant Liquids (NGPL) production increased from 697 million barrels in 2009 

to 730 million barrels in 2010. (Table 916) 

ENERGY

In 2009, passenger cars, light trucks, vans, and SUVs consumed more than 15.2 

quadrillion Btus and 86 million gallons of gasoline, more than all other modes of 

transportation, including air, transit, rail, water, and pipeline, put together. (Table 929)

Renewable energy production has almost doubled from 4.69 quadrillion Btus in 1975 to

8.06 quadrillion Btus in 2010. More than half of the renewable energy produced in 2010 

was from organic non-fossil materials of biological origin, known as biomass (4.31 

quadrillion Btu). (Table 925)

CONSTRUCTION

Value of new construction decreased from 907.7 billion in 2009 to 814.5 billion in 2010. 

(Table 963)

New privately owned housing units started increased from 583,000 in 2009 to 598,000 in 

2010. (Table 969)

Median sales price for a house increased from 216,700 in 2009 to 221,900 in 2010 (Table 

975)

Housing inventories increased from 130.6 million in 2010 from 129.9 million in 2009. 

(Table 982)
Homeowner vacancy rate is 2.6 in 2010 and Rental Vacancy Rate is 10.2 percent. (Table 

986)

MANUFACTURING

Based on 2007 Economic Census and Nonemployer Statistics, there were approximately 

294 thousand employer establishments and 328 thousand nonemployer establishments in 

the manufacturing industry sector. Sales, shipments, receipts or revenue for employer 

establishments came to over 5 trillion dollars compared to 16 billion in sales for 

nonemployer manufacturing establishments. California (491 billion), Texas (593 billion), 

and Ohio (295 billion) had the largest amount of sales for employer firms among states 

and California (2.8 billion), Texas (1.3 billion), and Florida (1.2 billion) had the largest 

amount of sales for nonemployer manufacturing establishments. (Table 1008)

WHOLESALE AND RETAIL

For retail trade corporations with assets of 50,000,000 dollars or more, net profit 

increased from 54.0 billion in 2008 to 84.1 billion in 2009. Profits per dollar of sales 

before taxes also increased from 2.6 cents per dollar of sales in 2008 up to 4.1 cents per 

dollar of sales in 2009. (Table 1052)

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS

In 2010, approximately 20 percent of households did not use the internet, 71 percent of 

households had an Internet connection in the home, of which, 68 percent had a broadband 

connection and 3 percent a dial up connection, 80 percent of households had an Internet 

connection anywhere (at home or mobile etc). Comparing race, Asian households were 

most likely to use the Internet, with nearly 88 percent of having some kind of connection 

to the Internet, White households 82 percent and Black and American Indian Alaskan 

Native households were just as likely at 73 percent to have a connection anywhere. 

(Table 1155)

Among adults 18 years and over, 48 percent of males accessed the Internet at home 

compared to 52 percent of women, both men and women accessed the internet equally at 

50 percent at work, women were more likely to access the internet at a school or library, 

55 percent compared to 45 percent of males, 53 percent of males accessed the Internet 

using a cell phone or mobile device whereas 47 percent of women accessed the internet 

that way, and men were also more likely to use a WIFI or wireless connection outside of 

the home 55 percent compared to 45 percent. Married people were more likely than 

single people to access the Internet at home 60 percent vs. 26 percent, at work 63 

compared to 24 percent, on a cell phone or mobile device 48 vs. 41 percent, and 54 

percent of married couples compared to 35 percent of single adults used a WIFI or 

wireless connection. (Table 1157)

Comparing Internet activities by different geographic community types among adults 18 

years and over, 11 percent of all internet users have created or worked on their own blog, 

of which, 16 percent lived in an urban community, 13 percent in a suburban community 

and 11 percent in a rural community. 55 percent of all adults have bought a product 
online and around 70 percent of all Internet users have regardless of geography. 80 

percent of rural Internet users have looked for health or medical information online. 

(Table 1159)

BANKING

Financial assets of government-sponsored enterprises (GSE) (e.g. Fannie and Freddie 

Mac) increased from 3,014 billion in 2009 to 6,591 billion in 2010. (Table 1166) GSE 

credit market debt also increased substantially in 2010 from 2,707 to 6,379. (Table 1167)

The 2007 median value of those families who own stocks and pooled investment funds 

are 17,000 and 56,000, respectively. (Table 1170) The median debt in 2007 of families 

was 67,000, 3,000 of which is credit card debt. (Table 1172)

In 2010 there were 7,657 FDIC-Insured financial institutions with total assets of 13,321.4 

billions. The state with the largest amount of assets was Ohio with 2,285.9 and Alaska 

with the fewest assets at 5 billion. (Table 1180)

In 2007 76 percent of all households used an ATM card. (Table 1185)

In 2009 there were 509 million debit cards in the United States with a purchase volume of 

1,944 billion. (Tables 1187 & 1188)

The delinquency rate of subprime conventional loans in 2010 was 25.9 percent with the 

rate for all loans at 9.3 percent. (Table 1194)

The total return to stocks (before inflation) in 2010 was 15.06, down from 26.25 in 2009 

but higher than -37.00 in 2008. (Table 1200)

U.S. securities held by foreign sovereignties were 4,385.3 billion in 2010. Leading 

holders of U.S. securities were China (1,280.1), Japan (871.5), and Brazil (184.7). (Table 

1206)

For 2008, the highest average automobile insurance expenditure per vehicle was found in 

Louisiana (1,105), New Jersey (1,081) and Florida (1,055). The lowest average was 

found in North Dakota (503), Iowa (519), and South Dakota (520). The national average 

is 789. (Table 1223)

SERVICES

E-commerce revenue continued to increase, from $149.7 billion in 2008 to $153.0 billion 

in 2009. In 2009, E-commerce represented 2.3% of total revenue in major service 

industries. (Table 1278)

In 2009, 91 percent of business travelers made lodging reservations when traveling on a 

typical night at an average rate of $123 per night. 87 percent of leisure travelers made 

lodging reservations when traveling and paid an average nightly rate of $105. (Table 

1282)
FOREIGN COMMERCE

U.S. reserve assets increased from 130.8 billion in 2009 to 132.4 billion in 2010. (Table 

1290)

U.S. foreign economic and military aid decreased from 48.9 billion in 2008 to 45.0 

billion in 2009. Military Aid also decreased from 15.9 billion in 2008 to 11.0 billion in 

2009. (Table 1298) 

U.S. international trade in goods by related parties increased from 1.5 trillion in 2009 to 

1.9 trillion in 2010. (Table 1301) 

U.S. agricultural exports decreased from 115.3 billion in 2008 to 96.6 billion in 2009. 

(Table 1306)

INTERNATIONAL 

In 2008, 40.6% of all live births in the United States were to unmarried women. In 

comparison, the same number was 52.6% in France and 32.1% in Germany. (Table 1335)

In 2009, the U.S. gave over $28.8 billion in Official Development Aid to foreign nations,

more than any other country. However the U.S. did not give as much as some other 

countries as a percentage of its income, donating only 0.21% of its Gross National 

Income (GNI). Sweden was at the top of that list, giving 1.12% of its GNI, followed by 

Norway (1.06%), and Luxembourg (1.04%). (Table 1402)

When comparing Internet usage among foreign nations, the U.S. ranked 18th in 2009 

(tying with Japan), with only 78.0% of its population using the Internet. Sweden, the 

United Kingdom, and South Korea all experienced higher rates of Internet usage at 90.8, 

83.6, and 81.5 percent, respectively. (Table 1392)

From 1990 to 2009, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from the consumption of fossil fuels 

(petroleum, natural gas, coal, and the flaring of natural gas) has risen 7.6% from 5,041.0 

million metric tons to 5,424.5 million metric tons. In comparison, China has experienced 

a 239.6% increase during the same time period (from 2,269.7 to 7,706.8 million metric 

tons). The United Kingdom, however, managed to decrease its carbon dioxide emissions 

by 13.6% from 601.8 million metric tons in 1990 to 519.9 million metric tons in 2009. 

(Table 1389)