Published September 28, 2010

The 2009 American Community Survey is out — a sort of annual “mini-census” that should not be confused with the decennial census data coming out later this year.

I’m digging into the numbers for Massachusetts to see what has changed from 2008 (in statistically significant ways). Here are my initial discoveries:

• The percentage of unemployed people rose, from 6 percent to 9.1 percent.
• Fewer people carpooled to work.
• More people took public transit.
• More people worked at home.
• Fewer people worked construction and sales jobs. More people worked management and professional jobs.
• The average household income (salary+benefits) fell by about $1,500, to about $85,500.
• More people lived in poverty, although the increase is statistically insignificant.
• The number of people without health insurance actually went up, to 4.2 percent (resulting in a statewide coverage rate of 95.8 percent — compared to a national average of about 85 percent coverage).

Any interesting bits that I missed?

You can also get data for the City of Boston and the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH metropolitan area.