New State/Local Data for March 2008


City and County Data Book

The U.S. Census Bureau released its City and County Data Book - a compendium covering state, counties, cities and places (incorporated places with a population of 25,000 or more as of April 1, 2000.). This is a good source of overview information across geographies. For example, it provides more recent statistics on crime for Colorado counties and the following cities (Arvada, Aurora, Boulder, Broomfield, Centennial, Colorado Springs, Denver, Fort Collins, Grand Junction, Greeley, Lakewood, Littleton, Longmont, Loveland, Northglenn, Pueblo, Thornton, Westminster and Wheat Ridge), and also on community welfare indicators such as physicians, community hospitals, Medicare, Social Security, and Supplemental Security Income.

The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Colorado 2008: A Family Needs Budget

The Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute (COFPI) released its latest report that details what it takes for families to make ends meet on a county-by-county basis. Previous reports were released by COFPI in 2001 and 2004. Incorporating data on childcare, housing, food, transportation, health insurance and other costs for households of various sizes, COFPI found that:

  • depending on family size, food prices for rural counties have increased 45 percent since 2004;
  • on average across the state, health care costs have increased 35 percent since 2004;
  • housing and child care costs continue to be the highest costs, on average, for Colorado families;
  • the number of Colorado counties with the highest self-sufficiency thresholds has doubled since 2004;
  • spikes in health care costs and food prices are adversely affecting families living in rural Colorado;

COFPI develops the Self-Sufficiency Standard to provide a tool and a means to figure out the best options for prioritizing effective policies. They suggest that the focus be on policies that help increase wages and earnings; reduce costs in key areas such as health care, housing, child care, transportation, and others; and strengthen work supports, critical public assistance, community investments, and other programs that move families toward self-sufficiency, particularly those in rural communities.

2007 National Healthcare Quality & Disparities Reports

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) produced its fifth annual National Healthcare Quality Report (NHQR) and the National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR). These reports measure trends in effectiveness of care, patient safety, timeliness of care, patient centeredness, and efficiency of care. The reports present, in chart form, the latest available findings on quality of and access to health care. The National Healthcare Quality Report tracks the health care system through quality measures, such as the percentage of heart attack patients who received recommended care when they reached the hospital or the percentage of children who received recommended vaccinations. The National Healthcare Disparities Report summarizes health care quality and access among various racial, ethnic, and income groups and other priority populations, such as children and older adults. Online Data Query Systems-NHQRnet and NHDRnet-are available for both reports. Go to the 2007 State Snapshots site for State-specific health care quality information and comparisons. Access metrics for evaluating Colorado healthcare.

Sources of Variation in State-Level Food Stamp Participation Rates

A report released by USDA's Economic Research Service found that, in 2003, about 56 percent of those eligible to participate in the Food Stamp Program actually participated. The participation rate varied substantially across States, ranging from a high of 83 percent in Oregon to a low of 43 percent in Massachusetts. Using data for 2003 from the Food Stamp Program Quality Control and Current Population Survey, this study examined factors that help to explain the variation. Results show that different population characteristics across States are a major factor because different types of eligible people tend to participate at different rates. States with a higher share of households headed by elderly people had lower rates, while those with a higher share of households without earnings and headed by non-elderly people had higher participation rates. Yet, substantial variation remained after "standardized" State participation rates were calculated that adjust for these compositional differences. Attempts to further explain these standardized rates by State policies and economic conditions were unsuccessful, perhaps due to the limited sample size and imprecise measures of policies. Standardized rates are presented for the state of Colorado.

ERS State Fact Sheets

State Fact Sheets contain frequently requested data for each state and for the total United States. These include current data on population (updated to 2007), per-capita income, earnings per job, poverty rates, employment, unemployment, farm and farm-related jobs, farm characteristics, farm financial characteristics, top agricultural commodities, top export commodities, and the top counties in agricultural sales. Fact sheet for Colorado.

National Reports with Local Relevance:

Who's Minding the Kids? Child Care Arrangements: Spring 2005

The U.S. Census Bureau released a report with tables providing national data on child care arrangements of preschoolers and grade-schoolers by various demographic characteristics of the employed mother. These data also profile children who care for themselves on a regular basis and examine the size of weekly child care payments made by selected characteristics of the family. Highlights include:

  • Among the 11.3 million children younger than 5 whose mothers were employed, 30 percent were cared for on a regular basis by a grandparent during their mother's working hours. A slightly greater percentage spent time in an organized care facility, such as a day care center, nursery or preschool. Meanwhile, 25 percent received care from their fathers, 3 percent from siblings and 8 percent from other relatives when mothers went to work.
  • Preschoolers with employed black and Hispanic mothers were more likely to be cared for by their grandparents than their fathers. Among preschoolers of employed non-Hispanic white mothers, about the same percentage were cared for by their fathers and their grandparents (29 percent).
  • Preschoolers whose mothers worked a night or evening shift were more likely to have their father as a child care provider than those whose mothers worked day shifts (39 percent and 18 percent, respectively).
  • Eighty-nine percent of children younger than 5 with employed mothers were in a regular child care arrangement, compared with 63 percent of their grade school-age counterparts.
  • Families in poverty who paid for child care in 2005 spent a greater proportion of their monthly income on child care than did families at or above the poverty level (29 percent compared with 6 percent).
  • Among all children, self-care was much more prevalent among middle school-age children than among those in elementary schools: 6 percent of ages 5 to 11 and 33 percent of ages 12 to 14 regularly cared for themselves.

These data were collected from February 2005 through May 2005 in the Survey of Income and Program Participation, and are subject to sampling and nonsampling error.

Household Food Security and Tradeoffs in the Food Budget of Food Stamp Program Participants: An Engel Function Approach

This study, conducted by Tufts University, develops a framework for differentiating true Food Stamp Program (FSP) impacts on food security from those that arise because households with the most severe food-related hardships are more likely to participate in the program. The framework hypothesizes that food spending improvements are the likely causal link between FSP participation and enhanced food security. Since food stamp benefits diminish with income, the incremental effect of FSP participation is also expected to diminish. Using data from the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplements in a statistical framework that controls for household income, the study finds that FSP participants have consistently higher at-home food spending and lower away-from-home-spending than comparable non-participants. For both groups, food security rises with income, but food security remains lower for program participants. Because differences in food spending and food security do not disappear as income rises, the study concludes that observed disparities are not likely to be true program impacts.

Food Stamps and Obesity: What Do We Know

This ERS report discusses the fact that results from reviewed studies indicate that for most participants in the Food Stamp Program-children, non-elderly men, and the elderly-use of food stamp benefits does not result in an increase in either Body Mass Index (BMI) or the likelihood of being overweight or obese. However, for non-elderly women, who account for 28 percent of the food stamp caseload, some evidence suggests that participation in the Food Stamp Program may increase BMI and the probability of obesity. Different results for age and sex subgroups remain unexplained. Further, because food stamp benefits are issued to households, not individuals, mixed results across age and sex subgroups make it difficult to target policy alternatives to address potential weight gain among some participants while not affecting others in the household.

Dietary Assessment of Major Trends in U.S. Food Consumption, 1970-2005

This report examines major trends in the amount of food available for consumption in the United States between 1970 and 2005 using data from the ERS Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System. The report also estimates whether Americans are meeting Federal dietary recommendations for each of the major food groups by comparing the data with dietary recommendations in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the MyPyramid Food Guidance System. Findings show that Americans do not meet the Federal dietary recommendations. For Americans to meet these recommendations, they would need to substantially lower their intake of added fats, refined grains, and added sugars and sweeteners and increase their consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat milk and milk products.

The Costs of Benefits Delivery in the Food Stamp Program: Lessons from a Cross-Program Analysis

This study, conducted by the Brookings Institution, compares the Food Stamp Program (FSP) with eight other public assistance programs across four measures of program effectiveness-administrative costs, error payments, program access, and benefit targeting. The comparison includes two other USDA nutrition assistance programs, three cash assistance programs, and three programs providing non-cash benefits other than food or nutrition assistance. Results show that the FSP and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) present contrasting patterns. The EITC program has lower administrative costs and higher program access rates than the FSP, but the FSP is more successful in limiting overpayments. Missing information makes it hard to generalize across the other programs, but there is some evidence suggesting that programs with higher errors have lower administrative costs. Low administrative costs also appear to be inversely associated with good program access for recipients. Also, programs that are more highly targeted tend to have higher benefit delivery costs.