麻豆app

Tell demographer Ken Johnson the county you live in and he can tell you a lot about your town, your state, and how that place has changed over past decades.

Pair up Johnson with Haya El Nasser, demographic reporter for USA Today, and she鈥檒l take Johnson鈥檚 data and find story angles to boggle the minds of USA Today鈥檚 3.1 million readers.

Recently El Nasser incorporated Johnson鈥檚 research on declining fertility into a story about Levittown, Pennsylvania, where, in 1960, Helen Bachman gave birth to one of her five children. That year 15 other children were born on the same block, and the local obstetrician was so busy he often slept in his car. Bachman, now 64, still lives in her old neighborhood but notes that today 鈥渙ut of 75 houses on the street, maybe 15 might have kids.鈥�

鈥淢y goal is always to discover and tell the story of the nation, because the nation changes,鈥� El Nasser says, 鈥淲e鈥檙e changing in so many different facets and ways. Once I understand the story, then I鈥檒l find people whose lives are emblematic of that data to give life to those numbers.鈥�

鈥淲hat I like about working with Ken,鈥� she says, 鈥渋s that he鈥檚 very exact with the data but very understanding of our needs in the media.鈥�

鈥淚'm a demographer,鈥� Johnson says, 鈥渁nd an academic. I lay out the numbers. Reporters aren鈥檛 talking to me because they want a point of view. They want someone who will tell them the factual story. That鈥檚 why they call me.鈥�

El Nasser is not the only reporter who depends on Johnson for facts and insight. Last year, in addition to USA Today, Johnson was quoted more than 2,000 times in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, and numerous other newspapers. He has also been interviewed on ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, CNN, BBC, and National Public Radio.

Johnson loves to make the numbers come alive for others. As a professor of sociology, he teaches both undergraduate statistics and graduate courses in demography and statistics. 鈥淎 lot of undergraduates come in to statistics classes reluctantly. It鈥檚 usually a requirement,鈥� Johnson says. 鈥淚鈥檒l say to them, 鈥榮ome of you are going to find out that you really like this stuff.鈥� And, you know what, they do. You can see it when they compare their hometowns to others. They can see how the nation is changing.鈥�

In 2011, the Rural Sociological Society honored Johnson with its Excellence in Research award honoring his three decades of work on changing patterns of rural migration and population redistribution, the development of a typology for recreational counties, and most recently, the changing racial and ethnic composition of rural America, focusing on Hispanics* and immigrants in new rural destinations.

Johnson鈥檚 own domestic migrations tell the story of his passion for rural demography. He grew up in Flint, Michigan, the grandson of immigrants from Sweden and Norway. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he earned his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

鈥淢y dissertation was on the impact of population loss on rural communities,鈥� recalled Johnson in a Chicago Tribune article. 鈥淥ne day a professor came up to me and suggested that I look at some unexpected new data from the 1970 census鈥攄ata showing that, after 100 years or more of population loss, some rural areas were growing. 鈥� I was hooked.鈥�

After graduate school, he returned to the Midwest, a married man, and took an academic position at Loyola University-Chicago where he taught for more than two decades. He and his wife Brenda raised their two sons in Chicago. In 2007, he and Brenda moved to New Hampshire where Johnson became both a professor of sociology and the senior demographer at UNH鈥檚 Carsey Institute.

A well-known presenter at the national level, Johnson understands the value of putting applied research into the local community and strengthening ties between the University and the state. Since his arrival at UNH, Johnson鈥檚 schedule has remained packed with presentations to state organizations that have included Leadership New Hampshire, the N.H. State Advisory Committee of U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation (NHCF).

Lew Feldstein, community activist and former president of the NHCF, heard Johnson make a presentation that dispelled the popular notion that young people were leaving the state. 鈥淗e clarified for me that New Hampshire is not losing young people. There was an abrupt drop in the birth rate in the 1990s,鈥� Feldstein says. 鈥淭hose young people aren鈥檛 leaving. They were never born.鈥�

Under Feldstein鈥檚 leadership the foundation grew to become the state鈥檚 largest philanthropic organization. Its programs are finely tuned to serve and connect people throughout the state. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been crucial for me to understand migration to the state over the last 10 years鈥攚hat mixes of people are here and where they live,鈥� Feldstein says. 鈥淜en has been wonderfully helpful.鈥�

Most of Johnson鈥檚 work is grant funded from sources such as the National Institutes of Health or the New Hampshire Endowment for Health. Even though New Hampshire鈥檚 population is relatively young now, given the state鈥檚 baby boomers and its recent influx of retirees, in 20 years Johnson estimates that the state鈥檚 elderly population will more than double.

But surprisingly, Johnson is also in the midst of extensive research for the U.S. Forest Service, analyzing population change near the National Forests including those in northern New England. He鈥檚 looking at how demographic change will influence the future use and development in and near the forests.

At the Carsey Institute, the walls of Johnson鈥檚 office are covered with charts and maps. It鈥檚 in numbers of course. But for Johnson, they tell the ever-evolving story of the nation鈥檚 people.

* 鈥淗ispanic鈥� is used by the U.S. Census. 鈥淟atino鈥� is an equivalent term.

Originally published by:

The College Letter