Demographic Case Studies
We help people understand the population changes facing their communities
Using datasets and primary research, we provide accessible and customizable insights in whatever format makes the most sense for your team. Learn more about our work and explore stories of how our clients use our tools and expertise to inform their decisions.
Standard population measures don't necessarily account for populations that ebb and flow -- as they tend to do in resort and beach towns. We collected data from a variety of sources, looking at factors like emergency services usage, water demands, housing, local employment, and local expenditures and investments. We also interviewed people who worked in these locations. Our research made clear that you can’t look at the benefits of tourism without also accounting for the cost of infrastructure — and that it is a difficult dynamic to manage. The results were presented in both a…
A local business owner needed to convince a popular franchise’s parent organization that local residents in a rural NC county would frequent his shop. But he faced a challenge: On paper, the rural county is sparsely populated, with many household incomes falling well below the state’s median. Starting in November 2017, he began working with Carolina Demography to paint a more robust picture of the area. We began by looking at data from the U.S. Census Bureau and other sources, which indicated that the high-level snapshot of the county didn’t paint a complete picture.
The North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) is a major provider of education and training to North Carolina workers and plays a critical role in helping North Carolina ensure sufficient levels of education and training to remain competitive in the changing economy. Despite the increasing demand for education, NCCCS has seen steadily declining enrollments since recovery from the Great Recession began in 2010. While population projections suggest that NCCCS may recover some of the recent enrollment declines, many individual community colleges face increased recruitment challenges due to demographic changes.
We are often asked to develop custom presentations for leaders across a variety of sectors who want to know how demographic shifts will affect their industry. We recently gave one such presentation to transportation leaders, who wanted to know how future demographic and industry trends might intersect. Background Based at the University of Memphis, the Southeast Transportation Workforce Center (SETWC) helps ensure that there are enough career-ready truck drivers in the Southeast region of the United States. The center identifies education and training gaps, develops partnerships across the transportation and freight sectors, and develops programs…
Background The SUDDEN research project at the UNC School of Medicine investigates all sudden unexpected deaths among adults ages 18-64 that occur outside of a hospital. Piloted in Wake County in 2013, the project seeks to understand risk factors for both cardiac and non-cardiac deaths. Ross J. Simpson, the lead SUDDEN PI and a cardiologist, wanted to expand his research study beyond Wake County. He approached Carolina Demography with a question: With limited budget and time, which counties in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia should his team focus on in order to obtain a…
A large utility company was planning to expand their operations and add hundreds of new field employees within a year. However, existing field employees were simultaneously leaving the company at a high rate. This added significant costs and hindered the organization’s capacity to scale operations. The utility company needed to understand why their current employees were leaving and how their turnover rates compared more broadly to industry trends. Through analysis of the utility company’s employee databases and conversations with their executives, Carolina Demography developed a profile of employees most likely to stay (and, conversely, those…
Since 2011, the Center for Galapagos Studies (CGS) has marshalled the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's research strengths to address the complex human and environmental pressures in the Galapagos archipelago, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and birthplace of evolutionary science. The archipelago’s growing local population and burgeoning tourism trade have created ongoing tensions between resource conservation efforts and economic development. In 2007, the Galapagos Islands were labeled “at risk” by the United Nations from threats associated with population growth. UNC and their partners at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) work on…
In 2014, the Wake County Board of Commissioners asked Carolina Demography to estimate when their population would surpass one million residents. In addition, they asked us to contextualize the estimated characteristics of their millionth resident in a broader discussion of past trends, current demographic characteristics, and a look to the future of Wake County. In 1910, Wake County’s population was 63,229. Although Wake County has grown steadily since then, it did not reach 100,000 residents until 1940. Over half a century later, in 1994, Wake’s population surpassed half a million. The establishment of Research Triangle…
The pandemic has increased the rate of homeschooling substantially, both nationally and at the state level. In North Carolina, the number of home schooled students increased by 21% from 2019-20 (149,173 students) to 2020-21 (179,900 students). In this blog post,…
A growing number of Americans are teaching their children at home. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of homeschooled students nearly doubled nationally from 850,000 in 1999 to 1,690,000 in 2016. The percentage of students who…
Paul Delamater, a health geographer and our colleague at the Carolina Population Center, is providing up-to-date estimates of COVID-19 cases and forecasts of vaccination across North Carolina. In addition to estimates, Delamater and a team of researchers are mapping: Schools…