Mr. Henry
AP Economics
Is an official count of all people living in the U.S. including their
place of residence
 Required by the Constitution of the United States
 First conducted in 1790
 Occurs every 10 years
 Used to decide the number of representatives that each state
elects to Congress. The members of the House of
Representatives serve two-year terms representing the people of
a district. Congressional districts are apportioned to states by
population using the United States Census results, provided that
each state has at least one congressperson. Each state
regardless of population has exactly two senators.
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Urban Population- People living in
incorporated cities, villages, or towns with
2,500 or more inhabitants
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Rural Population-makes up the remainder of
the total including those persons who live in
sparsely populated areas along the fringes
of cities
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How would you classify the following towns
or cities? Zelienople, Cranberry, Portersville,
Prospect
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Zelienople – 2000 (4,123); 2010 (3,812)
Cranberry – 2000 (23,625); 2010 (28,098)
Portersville – 2000 (268); 2010 (235)
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Today the rate of growth is less
than 1.0 percent annually
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In colonial times the average
household was 5.8 people
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1960 3.3 people
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Today 2.6 people
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Why do you think the size of
American households are
shrinking?
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Changes can distort GDP
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If a country grows faster than its output, per capita output grows more slowly and
country could end up with more mouths than it can feed. If a country grows too slowly,
there may not be enough workers to sustain the economy
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Support programs / Entitlements for its citizens
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Infrastructure- highways, levees, mass transit communications system, electricity, water,
sewer and other public goods needed to support population
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Baby Boom- high birth rate years from 1946 to 1964 make up a
sizeable portion of current population
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The problem posed by the “baby boomers”?
is that they are reaching retirement and starting to collect Social
Security and Medicare. These are transfer payments that will
place a large burden on the young working population
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Poverty Thresholdannual dollar
income used to
determine the
number of people
in poverty
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In 1776 Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations argued that
poverty is the inability to afford, "not only the commodities
which are indispensably necessary for the support of life, but
whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for
creditable people, even of the lowest order, to be without."
Charles Booth, a pioneering investigator of poverty in London at
the turn of the 20th century, popularized the idea of a poverty
line, a concept originally conceived by the London School Board.
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Max Lorenz- American economist who
published this paper when he was a
doctoral student at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison. His doctorate (1906)
was on 'The Economic Theory of Railroad
Rates' and made no reference to perhaps
his most famous paper.

Lorenz Curve- was developed
by an American statistician
and economist named Max
Lorenz when he was a
graduate student at the
University of Wisconsin.

Its Purpose?- showed how the
actual distribution of income
differs from an equal
distribution in order to display
income inequalities
Reasons why incomes vary:
Education
Prior Wealth
Tax Law Changes
Decline of Unions
More Service Jobs
Monopoly Power
Discrimination
Changing Family Structure.
What influence does wealth have on life choices (ie
what are the rich able to do that others cannot?)
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Welfare – Economic & social assistance from the government or
private agencies because of need
Food Stamps – Portion of Farm Bill; government issued coupons
that can be exchanged for food (1964 – based solely on income)
Medicaid – Joint federal-state medical insurance program for lowincome people
Workfare – Welfare in exchange for work; this means getting
unemployed people into paid work, eliminate lack of recent
workforce experience, reducing or eliminating welfare payments to
them, and creating an income that generates taxes.
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Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF) – Cash payment for death,
absence, or disability of parent
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) –
Cash payments to blind or disabled over
65
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) – Tax
credits to low income workers
Enterprise Zones – Free of some laws
established in low income / depressed
areas
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The list of Anti-Poverty programs above has created much
debate in recent years in our country.
If you were to run for political office, what program(s) would
you make an adjustment(s) to?
Which of the programs do you feel are effective?