United States - Selected Social Characteristics in the United States: 2006

United States

Selected Social Characteristics in the United States: 2006

Data Set: 2006 American Community Survey
Survey: American Community Survey

Social - Education, Marital Status, Relationships, Fertility, Grandparents...
Economic - Income, Employment, Occupation, Commuting to Work...
Housing - Occupancy and Structure, Housing Value and Costs, Utilities...
Demographic - Sex and Age, Race, Hispanic Origin, Housing Units...
Narrative - Text profile with graphs for easy analysis...

NOTE. Although the American Community Survey (ACS) produces population, demographic and housing unit estimates, it is the Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program that produces and disseminates the official estimates of the population for the nation, states, counties, cities and towns and estimates of housing units for states and counties.

For more information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see Survey Methodology.

Selected Social Characteristics in the United States: 2006	Estimate	Margin of Error
HOUSEHOLDS BY TYPE
Total households	111,617,402	+/-145,530
Family households (families)	74,564,066	+/-148,862
With own children under 18 years	34,965,930	+/-102,715
Married-couple families	55,521,868	+/-163,218
With own children under 18 years	24,149,585	+/-96,740
Male householder, no wife present	5,121,415	+/-36,034
With own children under 18 years	2,510,889	+/-27,254
Female householder, no husband present	13,920,783	+/-51,687
With own children under 18 years	8,305,456	+/-40,700
Nonfamily households	37,053,336	+/-77,513
Householder living alone	30,496,588	+/-74,119
65 years and over	10,209,135	+/-39,874

Households with one or more people under 18 years	38,628,743	+/-104,120
Households with one or more people 65 years and over	25,867,508	+/-46,680

Average household size	2.61	+/-0.01
Average family size	3.20	+/-0.01

RELATIONSHIP
Household population	291,332,841	*****
Householder	111,617,402	+/-145,530
Spouse	55,480,873	+/-145,337
Child	88,904,692	+/-124,393
Other relatives	19,586,781	+/-131,325
Nonrelatives	15,743,093	+/-141,710
Unmarried partner	6,049,030	+/-36,081

MARITAL STATUS
Males 15 years and over	116,327,232	+/-24,444
Never married	39,401,560	+/-99,234
Now married, except separated	60,955,218	+/-140,048
Separated	2,194,345	+/-23,939
Widowed	2,959,354	+/-23,012
Divorced	10,816,755	+/-58,559

Females 15 years and over	122,258,450	+/-21,779
Never married	33,385,649	+/-77,920
Now married, except separated	59,211,138	+/-120,947
Separated	3,210,647	+/-31,442
Widowed	12,223,537	+/-43,485
Divorced	14,227,479	+/-53,655

FERTILITY
Number of women 15 to 50 years old who had a birth in the past 12 months	4,182,942	+/-36,517
Unmarried women (widowed, divorced, and never married)	1,370,877	+/-21,890
Per 1,000 unmarried women	35	+/-1
Per 1,000 women 15 to 50 years old	55	+/-1
Per 1,000 women 15 to 19 years old	26	+/-1
Per 1,000 women 20 to 34 years old	104	+/-1
Per 1,000 women 35 to 50 years old	23	+/-1

GRANDPARENTS
Number of grandparents living with own grandchildren under 18 years	6,062,034	+/-47,032
Responsible for grandchildren	2,455,102	+/-30,823
Years responsible for grandchildren
Less than 1 year	553,508	+/-12,788
1 or 2 years	589,685	+/-13,618
3 or 4 years	393,958	+/-11,358
5 or more years	917,951	+/-20,096

Characteristics of grandparents responsible for own grandchildren under 18 years
Who are female	63.5%	+/-0.4
Who are married	70.1%	+/-0.5

SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
Population 3 years and over enrolled in school	79,121,944	+/-83,063
Nursery school, preschool	4,901,007	+/-33,659
Kindergarten	4,012,680	+/-27,405
Elementary school (grades 1-8)	32,256,951	+/-41,444
High school (grades 9-12)	17,500,473	+/-43,195
College or graduate school	20,450,833	+/-72,110

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
Population 25 years and over	195,932,824	+/-66,369
Less than 9th grade	12,743,555	+/-68,399
9th to 12th grade, no diploma	18,502,540	+/-68,552
High school graduate (includes equivalency)	59,123,954	+/-119,818
Some college, no degree	38,185,678	+/-108,990
Associate's degree	14,486,202	+/-61,487
Bachelor's degree	33,496,187	+/-98,962
Graduate or professional degree	19,394,708	+/-81,929

Percent high school graduate or higher	84.1%	+/-0.1
Percent bachelor's degree or higher	27.0%	+/-0.1

VETERAN STATUS
Civilian population 18 years and over	224,648,294	+/-27,029
Civilian veterans	23,425,051	+/-61,909

DISABILITY STATUS OF THE CIVILIAN NONINSTITUTIONALIZED POPULATION
Population 5 years and over	273,835,465	+/-21,234
With a disability	41,259,809	+/-98,726

Population 5 to 15 years	44,696,789	+/-40,535
With a disability	2,829,622	+/-32,313

Population 16 to 64 years	193,568,216	+/-43,195
With a disability	23,863,097	+/-85,217

Population 65 years and over	35,570,460	+/-18,433
With a disability	14,567,090	+/-42,335

RESIDENCE 1 YEAR AGO
Population 1 year and over	295,345,172	+/-30,382
Same house	245,677,993	+/-296,122
Different house in the U.S.	47,776,225	+/-287,815
Same county	29,298,359	+/-212,780
Different county	18,477,866	+/-126,992
Same state	10,530,806	+/-90,829
Different state	7,947,060	+/-79,932
Abroad	1,890,954	+/-33,107

PLACE OF BIRTH
Total population	299,398,485	*****
Native	261,850,696	+/-125,641
Born in United States	258,104,017	+/-121,288
State of residence	176,467,918	+/-157,365
Different state	81,636,099	+/-149,758
Born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island areas, or born abroad to American parent(s)	3,746,679	+/-33,259
Foreign born	37,547,789	+/-125,642

U.S. CITIZENSHIP STATUS
Foreign-born population	37,547,789	+/-125,642
Naturalized U.S. citizen	15,767,731	+/-79,241
Not a U.S. citizen	21,780,058	+/-115,003

YEAR OF ENTRY
Population born outside the United States	41,294,468	+/-121,289

Native	3,746,679	+/-33,259
Entered 2000 or later	546,422	+/-15,890
Entered before 2000	3,200,257	+/-30,782

Foreign born	37,547,789	+/-125,642
Entered 2000 or later	9,511,828	+/-98,778
Entered before 2000	28,035,961	+/-98,639

WORLD REGION OF BIRTH OF FOREIGN BORN
Foreign-born population, excluding population born at sea	37,547,315	+/-125,604
Europe	4,993,135	+/-48,762
Asia	10,052,929	+/-44,487
Africa	1,375,676	+/-29,935
Oceania	181,987	+/-9,350
Latin America	20,088,292	+/-89,211
Northern America	855,296	+/-17,024

LANGUAGE SPOKEN AT HOME
Population 5 years and over	279,012,712	+/-16,153
English only	224,154,288	+/-118,750
Language other than English	54,858,424	+/-114,730
Speak English less than "very well"	24,212,711	+/-91,288
Spanish	34,044,945	+/-76,389
Speak English less than "very well"	16,118,920	+/-79,631
Other Indo-European languages	10,283,232	+/-80,596
Speak English less than "very well"	3,393,412	+/-45,115
Asian and Pacific Islander languages	8,275,131	+/-46,998
Speak English less than "very well"	4,030,710	+/-36,297
Other languages	2,255,116	+/-38,592
Speak English less than "very well"	669,669	+/-19,862

ANCESTRY
Total population	299,398,485	*****
American	20,372,454	+/-111,212
Arab	1,466,874	+/-37,729
Czech	1,637,218	+/-24,443
Danish	1,516,126	+/-24,284
Dutch	5,187,864	+/-37,776
English	28,290,369	+/-97,842
French (except Basque)	9,651,364	+/-59,263
French Canadian	2,240,648	+/-29,800
German	50,764,352	+/-114,181
Greek	1,380,258	+/-31,603
Hungarian	1,563,081	+/-28,441
Irish	35,975,855	+/-140,668
Italian	17,829,184	+/-89,165
Lithuanian	722,879	+/-16,058
Norwegian	4,669,516	+/-39,169
Polish	10,024,683	+/-57,349
Portuguese	1,442,077	+/-26,324
Russian	3,105,965	+/-43,006
Scotch-Irish	5,393,554	+/-38,988
Scottish	6,006,955	+/-55,927
Slovak	838,385	+/-20,943
Subsaharan African	2,540,781	+/-46,877
Swedish	4,417,115	+/-45,040
Swiss	1,018,910	+/-18,191
Ukrainian	961,113	+/-22,656
Welsh	1,959,794	+/-23,396
West Indian (excluding Hispanic origin groups)	2,418,969	+/-45,730

Selected Social Characteristics in the United States: 2006	Estimate	Margin of Error

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey

Data are based on a sample and are subject to sampling variability. The degree of uncertainty for an estimate arising from sampling variability is represented through the use of a margin of error. The value shown here is the 90 percent margin of error. The margin of error can be interpreted roughly as providing a 90 percent probability that the interval defined by the estimate minus the margin of error and the estimate plus the margin of error (the lower and upper confidence bounds) contains the true value. In addition to sampling variability, the ACS estimates are subject to nonsampling error (for a discussion of nonsampling variability, see Accuracy of the Data). The effect of nonsampling error is not represented in these tables.

Notes:
�Ancestry listed in this table refers to the total number of people who responded with a particular ancestry; for example, the estimate given for Russian represents the number of people who listed Russian as either their first or second ancestry. This table lists only the largest ancestry groups; see the Detailed Tables for more categories. Race and Hispanic origin groups are not included in this table because official data for those groups come from the Race and Hispanic origin questions rather than the ancestry question (see Demographic Table).
�The Census Bureau introduced a new skip pattern for the disability questions in the 2003 ACS questionnaire. This change mainly affected two individual items -- go-outside-home disability and employment disability -- and the recode for disability status, which includes the two items. Accordingly, comparisons of data from 2003 or later with data from prior years are not recommended for the relevant questions. For more information, see the ACS Subject Definitions for Disability.
�Data for year of entry of the native population reflect the year of entry into the U.S. by people who were born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island Areas or born outside the U.S. to a U.S. citizen parent and who subsequently moved to the U.S.
�While the 2006 American Community Survey (ACS) data generally reflect the December 2005 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) definitions of metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas, in certain instances the names, codes, and boundaries of the principal cities shown in ACS tables may differ from the OMB definitions due to differences in the effective dates of the geographic entities.

Explanation of Symbols:
1. An '**' entry in the margin of error column indicates that either no sample observations or too few sample observations were available to compute a standard error and thus the margin of error. A statistical test is not appropriate.
2. An '-' entry in the estimate column indicates that either no sample observations or too few sample observations were available to compute an estimate, or a ratio of medians cannot be calculated because one or both of the median estimates falls in the lowest interval or upper interval of an open-ended distribution.
3. An '-' following a median estimate means the median falls in the lowest interval of an open-ended distribution.
4. An '+' following a median estimate means the median falls in the upper interval of an open-ended distribution.
5. An '***' entry in the margin of error column indicates that the median falls in the lowest interval or upper interval of an open-ended distribution. A statistical test is not appropriate.
6. An '*****' entry in the margin of error column indicates that the estimate is controlled. A statistical test for sampling variability is not appropriate.
7. An 'N' entry in the estimate and margin of error columns indicates that data for this geographic area cannot be displayed because the number of sample cases is too small.
8. An '(X)' means that the estimate is not applicable or not available.

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2006 Data Profiles:

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