the state of metropolitan america

Video - Metropolis set to Kraftwerk.

Brookings | The State of Metropolitan America report is arranged topically, with nine chap­ters that correspond to nine of the most important subjects tracked by the Census Bureau in its annual American Community Survey:

* Population and Migration follows the popula­tion growth and decline of U.S. places over the decade, and how the movement of people—from next-door communities, from other parts of the country, and from abroad—contributed to these trends.

* Race and Ethnicity analyzes the changing racial (e.g., white, black, Asian) and ethnic (e.g., Hispanic) composition of our population, includ­ing the patterns of growth and decline in these groups in different corners of the nation.

* Immigration focuses on America’s foreign-born population, both citizens and non-citizens: their growth, where they live, their characteristics, and the growing demographic influence of their children.

* Age looks at the shifting balance between older and younger Americans across the country, especially as the baby boom generation—Ameri­ca’s largest—approaches seniorhood.

* Households and Families examines who makes up the fundamental units of our society, how their structures are changing over time, and how they relate to the different racial/ethnic and age profiles of America’s communities.

* Educational Attainment profiles the educa­tional status of adults (how much schooling they have completed, their enrollment in higher education), identifies differences by age and and relates these to the underlying economic features of regions.

* Work analyzes two sets of indicators on the sta¬tus of America’s labor force: the wages earned by differently compensated workers; and rates of unemployment, which reflect the varying degrees of economic pain experienced by different parts of the country.

* Income and Poverty portrays trends in the economic well-being of typical households, the size of the “middle class,” and the location and characteristics of America’s sizeable and growing poor population.

* Commuting details how we get to work, how those patterns have changed over time, and the factors contributing to the sizeable differences among communities in how workers undertake those daily trips.

Each chapter is authored by one or more Brookings experts, each of whom has written widely on the topic at hand. The chapters include the authors’ own analysis of the most important and compelling trends over the 2000s, accompanied by their thoughts on what these trends mean for the future of people, places, and public policy.

The State of Metropolitan America also contains an overview of the report and the policy implications of the findings.