6/03/2013

Commuter Adjusted Populations

Interesting article from the Atlantic.

"Commuter-adjusted populations" tell us a lot about where the jobs are and which communities do little more than give people a place to sleep. Count people where they work, and not where they live, and the resulting picture also further blurs the divide between cities and suburbs (and how we think about who is invested in which places).

As a major jobs center, Manhattan not surprisingly has one of the most dramatic changes in daytime population. Percentage-wise, though, the growth of Redmond City, Washington, is even greater; the population of the Seattle suburb expands by about 111 percent by day. Why? Microsoft is based there.

These figures come from a new report from the Census Bureau using data from the American Community Survey, which asks people both where they live and work. These cities are among the top 20 for commuter adjusted population (here we're looking at all of New York, not just Manhattan):



Census Bureau


Invariably, those cities that lose the most population by day tend to be outer-ring suburbs with lots of homes and few jobs (Centerville and Dale City, Virginia, outside of D.C.; Atascocita, Texas, north of Houston). This map contrasts those patterns of daytime population loss and gain across the country, with big receiver counties in blue and feeders in red.



"Commuter-Adjusted Population Estimates: ACS 2006-10"


Click to read the full article in the Atlantic.









 

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