Population
The Pandemic Flight of Wealthy New Yorkers Was a Once-in-a-Century Shock
The outlook for this year has become much less certain as the stock market has plummeted in recent months and certain forms of federal aid, like stimulus checks and expanded unemployment benefits, have ended. The city’s Independent Budget Office said it was not possible to calculate the tax revenue lost from the people who had […]
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As the Great Salt Lake Dries Up, Utah Faces An ‘Environmental Nuclear Bomb’
SALT LAKE CITY — If the Great Salt Lake, which has already shrunk by two-thirds, continues to dry up, here’s what’s in store: The lake’s flies and brine shrimp would die off — scientists warn it could start as soon as this summer — threatening the 10 million migratory birds that stop at the lake […]
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Descending Into Florida’s Underwater Caves
Long before theme parks began sprouting from Orlando’s swamps, Florida’s freshwater springs were among the area’s main attractions. Indigenous Americans made use of the springs for thousands of years before Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 1500s. The conquistadors’ reports of clear water gushing from cavernous holes in forest floors fueled myths about the existence of […]
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Seven Decades Later, the 1950 Census Bares Its Secrets
“We have about 400,000 volunteers that index records all the time,” said David E. Rencher, the chief genealogical officer at Family Search. “For a project like this, where we rally the community, we’ll get a bump, probably several hundred thousand, just to do this.” That army is but one indicator of the national fascination with […]
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China’s Divorce Rate Is Down, but So Are Marriages
HONG KONG — Faced with a soaring divorce rate, the ruling Communist Party in China introduced a rule last year to keep unhappy marriages together by forcing couples to undergo a 30-day “cooling off” period before finalizing a divorce. The rule appears to have worked, according to government statistics released this week, which show a […]
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Why Small Towns Are Attracting More Newcomers
Research by Rebecca Diamond, an economist at Stanford University, and Enrico Moretti, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, explains the attraction. They worked out how costs affect living standards in various parts of the country. Workers without a four-year college degree earn little in the Cookeville commuting zone — their income puts them […]
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China’s Births Hit Historic Low, a Political Problem for Beijing
China announced on Monday that its birthrate plummeted for a fifth straight year in 2021, moving the world’s most populous country closer to the potentially seismic moment when its population will begin to shrink, and hastening a demographic crisis that could undermine its economy and even its political stability. The falling birthrate, coupled with the […]
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As Its Population Soars to 40, Rum Isle Glimpses a Future in the Mist
With four new families recently arriving, the remote and rainy island in the Hebrides is experiencing its version of a population surge, although residents new and old concede living here isn’t easy. ISLE OF RUM, Scotland — No doctors. No restaurants. No churches. And worst of all for some: no pubs. Life on a remote […]
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First They Fought About Masks. Then Over the Soul of the City.
But as the months went by, none of the people he had bought lunch for, or helped get funding for their organizations, stood up for him. A former military member whom he counted as a friend even joined the Enid Freedom Fighters. He felt as if he were living in a town that no longer […]
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