Connecticut Passes 60% Mark in Census Self-Response

As of Monday, May 4, 2020, Connecticut’s self-response rate hit 60% and moved the state up to 15th place among the 50 states. Last week 91, or 54% of Connecticut’s towns, had self-response rates at or above 60%. This week, 119, or 70%, of our towns are above 60% self-response rates. Tolland claimed the top spot again with a self-response rate of 76.5%. Other towns with a high self-response rate included Marlborough (75.9%), Burlington (75.1%), Orange and Granby (74.4%), and Cheshire (74.3%).

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COVIDeracy: Data Literacy in Uncertain Times

At CTData, we are data people and believe data is for everyone. We know access to reliable and trustworthy resources is essential to increasing data literacy and informing decision making, especially during a global health crisis. We also know unless you were trained as an epidemiologist, it can be difficult to understand how to read and interpret the information being disseminated.

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How COVID-19 is Impacting Our Workforce: Total Unemployment Claims by Age, Gender and Sector

Losing a job is hard enough, but losing a job during a crisis can lead to even more devastation. As unemployment shakes the state, the data shows that its impact varies based on age, gender, and sector. We created the charts below to illustrate which groups have been most affected by unemployment in Connecticut. Read more for a visual summary of unemployment claims data by age, gender, and industry sector provided by the CT Department of Labor for the weeks of March 15th and 22nd.

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The Majority of Connecticut’s Towns Have Self-Response Rates Above 60%

As of Monday, April 27, 2020, 54% of Connecticut’s towns had self-response rates at or above 60%. While last week, 28 towns had self-response rates at or above 60%, this week, 91, or 54% of Connecticut’s towns, had self-response rates at or above 60%. Tolland claimed the top spot again with a self-response rate of 72.4%. Other towns with a high self-response rate included Marlborough (71.4%), Burlington (70.7%), Cheshire (69.9%), and Simsbury (69.6%).

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Some Fairfield Cities May Be Flattening the COVID-19 Curve

Given our close proximity to New York state, Connecticut has been hit hard by COVID-19. In fact, a recent New York Times article reported four of Connecticut’s metro areas in the top 15 nationally for the number of new deaths in the last two weeks: Fairfield County (#2), Hartford (#3), New Haven (#6), and Torrington (#11). Statewide, the number of confirmed cases continues to climb as testing becomes more accessible. As of Monday, April 27, Connecticut had 90,746 tests completed; 25,997 confirmed cases; 1,758 hospitalizations; and 2,012 deaths. On average, per 1000 residents, that is approximately 25.34 tests, 7.26 confirmed cases, 0.49 hospitalizations, and 0.56 deaths.

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Income in Connecticut: The Source Shapes the Story—Part III, Student Loans

Research student loans and the term “crisis” tends to appear in the search results. Student loan debt has been increasing steadily as the cost of education rises in our country, with student loan debt accounting for over $1.5 trillion in 2019 compared to $260 billion in 2004. In fact, 11% of consumer debt is attributed to student loans with the average student loan debt being around $37,000.

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Windham County Sees Highest Jump in Self-Response Rate in Connecticut This Week

As of Monday, April 20, 2020, six of Connecticut’s towns saw a week-over-week increase of more than 12%. A week ago on April 13, Windham County had the lowest self-response rate at 45.7%, putting it in last place among Connecticut’s counties. However, as of April 20 it came in second-to-last with a 50.4% self-response rate, with Litchfield County slightly lower (49.6%).

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Connecticut's Self-Response Rate Ranks 19th Among the 50 States

As of Tuesday, March 31, 2020, 37.6% of Connecticut residents had responded to 2020 Census. That puts us 19th among the 50 states. This is up from 23rd on March 23. Wisconsin leads the way with a rate of 44.3%, and Alaska is last with a rate of 22%. Connecticut performs better than two of its neighbors, Rhode Island (35.1%) and New York (31.1%), but lags behind Massachusetts (38.3%).

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Stopping the Spread: Using Trusted Data Sources to Prevent Misinformation about COVID-19

CTData realizes that it can be challenging to understand what sources to trust and where to find reliable data. We created a COVID-19 dashboard with daily updates, including the number of completed tests, confirmed cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Detailed information is available at the state and county level with the number of confirmed cases available at the town level. Data in the dashboard comes from the governor’s daily updates with data from the CT Department of Public Health (DPH).

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HealthGuest Usercovid19
It's Equal Pay Day! How Close Are We to Pay Equity?

In the United States, women must work an average of 3 extra months each year to earn the same as men. Equal Pay Day, March 31, 2020, commemorates this wage gap by marking “how far into the year women must additionally work to earn what men earned in the previous year.” In other words, women, on average, must work 15 months to earn the income men earn in 12 months.

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Coronavirus Doesn’t Change Where College Students Get Counted in Census 2020

Everyone’s lives have been upended due to the novel coronavirus. You may be reading this from your home “office” (dining table, kitchen counter, your child’s fort…). You and others in your community also may have college students staying with you since classes have moved online. The coronavirus has also affected census operations, but one thing hasn’t changed—college students should be counted where they would have been residing on April 1.

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Health Data Users Gather to Share Resources

On Tuesday, March 10th, data users from universities, non-profit organizations, municipalities, and private consulting businesses joined CTData for its first Hartford Data Meetup of 2020. These Data Meetups are opportunities for data users around the state to share data resources, support each other in their work, and network with peers. Meetups happen on a quarterly basis and focus on a particular topic. The March Meetup focused on health data.

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EventsGuest User
2020 Census Begins Today: Official Forms Start Arriving in Mailboxes

Between Thursday, March 12 and Friday, March 20, Connecticut residents can expect to receive a Census notification in the mail. The official Census Bureau invitation, to be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, will include detailed information on how to respond to the 2020 Census. Individuals responding submit one Census form listing everyone who lives in their household.

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