Overview
Population change exerts a significant impact on communities, families, and institutions. Demography is not destiny, but researchers and policy makers ignore it at their peril. At the Carsey Institute, we seek to delineate the population change underway in communities and to analyze the demographic forces that cause it, using the latest data. We also consider the consequences that demographic change has for the environment, communities, and families in both rural and urban areas. Our analysis of demographic change and the implications it has for New Hampshire, New England, and the United States contributes to the informed policy making needed to address the complex problems that population growth and decline produce.
Ongoing projects
Community & Environment in Rural America (CERA)
Challenged by a history of cycles of economic boom and bust, rural America is today confronted by globalization, resource depletion, changing demographics, new land use patterns, rising energy costs, and climate change. Carsey’s interdisciplinary CERA program uses over 10,000 household interviews from the UNH Survey Center to build knowledge of the socioeconomic conditions, natural resource changes, and policy opportunities to sustain rural communities and ecosystems. The work includes solid, active partnerships with community development practitioners and community foundations across rural America.
Growing Number of Minority Children
Hard-to-Count Census in Rural Areas
See all works in progress
Publication links
2009
National
- Rural America and the South Have the Highest Percent of Veterans with Service-Related Disabilites (Mattingly and Stransky, 2009, Fact Sheet No. 16)
- The Forgotten Fifth: Child Poverty in Rural America (O'Hare, 2009, Report No. 10)
- Rural Workers More Likely to Work Nontraditional Shifts (Saenz, 2009, Issue Brief No. 5)
- Rural Workers Would Benefit from Unemployment Insurance Modernizations (Shattuck, 2009, Policy Brief No. 13)
- Forty-three Percent of Rural Families Can Claim a Larger Credit with EITC Expansion (Mattingly, 2009, Policy Brief No. 12)
- Seventy-eight Percent of Working Rural Families to Receive Full Making Work Pay Tax Credit (Mattingly, 2009, Fact Sheet No. 14)
- Child Tax Credit Expansion Increases Number of Families Eligible for a Refund (Mattingly, 2009, Issue Brief No. 4)
New England
- Demographic Trends in the Manchester-Nashua Metropolitain Area (Johnson and Macieski, 2009, New England Issue Brief No. 16)
- Home Health Care Workers in New Hampshire: Keeping NH Elders in Their Homes (Smith, 2009, New England Policy Brief No. 2)
- The State of Working New Hampshire 2009 (Churilla, 2009, New England Issue Brief No. 15)
- Paid Sick Time Helps Workers Balance Work and Family (Smith, 2009, New England Issue Brief No. 13)
- Navigating the Teen Years: Promise and Peril for Northern New Hampshire Youth (Shattuck, 2009, New England Issue Brief No. 12)
2008
National
- Working Hard for the Money: Trends in Women's Employment 1970-2007 (Smith, 2008, Reports on Rural America, Volume 1, Number 5)
- Grey Gold: Do Older In-Migrants Benefit Rural Communities? (Glasgow and Brown, 2008, Policy Brief No. 10)
- Rural Children Now Less Likely to Live in Married Couple Families (O'Hare and Churilla, 2008, Fact Sheet No. 13)
- Concentrated Rural Poverty and the Geography of Exclusion (Lichter and Parisi, 2008, Policy Brief) (copublished with Rural Realities)
- Population Growth in New Hispanic Destinations (Johnson and Lichter, 2008, Policy Brief No. 8)
- Religion, Politics, and the Environment in Rural America (Dillon and Henly, 2008, Issue Brief No. 3)
- Children in Central Cities and Rural Communities Experience High Rates of Poverty (Savage, 2008, Fact Sheet No. 12)
- Place Matters: Challenges and Opportunities in Four Rural Americas (Hamilton, Hamilton, Duncan, and Colocousis, 2008, Reports on Rural America, Volume 1, Number 4)
- A Profile of Latinos in Rural America (Saenz, 2008, Fact Sheet No. 10)
New England
- Many New Voters Make the Granite State One to Watch in November (Johnson, Scala, and Smith, 2008, New England Issue Brief No. 9)
- Profile of New Hampshire's Foreign-born Population (Gittell and Lord, 2008, New England Issue Brief No. 8)
- The Changing Faces of New England (Johnson, 2008, Reports on New England, Volume 1, Number 2)
2007
National
- Rural America in the 21st Century (Report to the National Rural Assembly, 2007)
- Low Wages Prevalent in Direct Care and Child Care Workforce (Smith and Baughman, 2007, Policy Brief No. 7)
- Rural Americans Continue to Account for Disproportionate High Share of U.S. Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan (O'Hare and Bishop, 2007, Fact Sheet No. 9)
- Employment Rates Higher Among Rural Mothers Than Urban Mothers (Smith, 2007, Fact Sheet No. 7)
New England
- The Changing Faces of New Hampshire (Johnson, 2007, Reports on New England, Volume 1, Number 1)
- New Faces at the Polls for New Hampshire Presidential Primary (Johnson, 2007, New England Fact Sheet No. 2)
- The State of Working NH 2007 (Churilla, 2007, New England Issue Brief No. 5)
- New England Has the Highest Increase in Income Disparity in the Nation (Gittell and Rudokas, 2007, New England Issue Brief No. 4)
2006
National
- New Immigrant Settlements in Rural America (Jensen, 2006, Reports on Rural America, Volume 1, Number 3)
- Demographic Trends in Rural and Small Town America (Johnson, 2006, Reports on Rural America, Volume 1, Number 1)
- U.S. Rural Soldiers Account for a Disproportionately High Share of Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan (O'Hare and Bishop, 2006, Fact Sheet No. 3)
- Values and Religion in Rural America (Dillon and Savage, 2006, Issue Brief No. 1)
- Rural Voting in the 2004 Election (Hamilton, 2006, Fact Sheet No. 2)
New England
- Low-Income Families in New Hampshire (Churilla, 2006, New England Issue Brief No. 3)
- The State of Working Vermont 2006 (Churilla, 2006, Issue Brief No. 2, copublication with the Public Assets Institute)
- The State of Working NH 2006 (Churilla, 2006, New England Issue Brief No. 1)
Useful Web site resources