Youth Indicators 1996 / Glossary

Glossary

Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program provides cash support for low-income families with dependent children who have been deprived of parental support due to death, disability, continued absence of a parent, or unemployment.

Average daily attendance (ADA) is the aggregate attendance of a school during a reporting period (normally school year) divided by the number of days school is in session during this period. Only days on which pupils are under the guidance and direction of teachers are considered as days in session.

Civilian labor force comprises the total of all civilians classified as employed or unemployed in accordance with the criteria described below. Members of the armed forces stationed either in the United States or abroad are included in the "labor force" (see below), but not in the civilian labor force.

Constant dollars are dollar amounts that have been adjusted by means of price and cost indices to eliminate inflationary factors and allow direct comparison across years. Constant dollars are expressed in two ways in this publication: 1) according to calendar year and 2) according to school year.

Consumer unit is 1) all members of a particular household who are related by blood or legal arrangements; 2) persons living alone or sharing a household with others; or 3) two or more persons together who are making joint expenditure decisions. All units are considered financially independent.

Current dollars are dollar amounts that have not been adjusted to compensate for inflation.

Current expenditures (elementary/secondary) are the expenditures for operating local public schools excluding capital outlay and interest on school debt. These expenditures include such items as salaries for school personnel, fixed charges, student transportation, school books and materials, and energy costs. Beginning in 1980-81, expenditures for state administration are excluded.

Dropouts are persons who are not enrolled in school and who have not completed high school. People who have received high school equivalency credentials are counted as having completed high school.

Employment includes activities of civilian, noninstitutionalized persons such as 1) paid work during any part of a survey week; work at their own business, profession, or farm; or unpaid work for 15 hours or more in a family-owned enterprise; or 2) temporary absence due to illness, bad weather, vacation, labor-management dispute, or personal reasons, whether or not another job is being sought.

Estimated pregnancy rate is the sum of births, plus abortions, plus miscarriages. Miscarriages are estimated as 20 percent of all births and to 10 percent of all abortions. Family is a group of two persons or more (one of whom is the householder, see below) related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together; all such persons (including related subfamily members) are considered as members of one family. Beginning with the 1980 Current Population Survey (CPS), members of unrelated subfamilies (referred to in the past as secondary families) are not included in the count of family members.

Family household is a household maintained by a family (as defined above), and any unrelated persons (unrelated subfamily members, other individuals, or both) who may be residing there. The number of family households is equal to the number of families. The count of family household members differs from the count of family members, however, in that the family household members include all persons living in the household, whereas family members include only the householder and his/her relatives (see "family").

Household consists of all the persons who occupy a housing unit. A house, an apartment or other group of rooms, or a single room, is regarded as a housing unit when it is occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living quarters, that is, when the occupants do not live and eat with any other person in the structure and there is direct access from the outside or through a common hall. A household includes the related family members and all the unrelated persons, if any, such as lodgers, foster children, wards, or employees who share the housing unit. A person living alone in a housing unit, or a group of unrelated persons sharing a housing unit as partners, is also counted as a household. The count of households excludes group quarters.

Householder refers to the person (or one of the persons) in whose name the housing unit is owned or rented (maintained) or, if there is no such person, any adult member, excluding roomers, boarders, or paid employees. If the housing unit is owned or rented jointly by a married couple, the householder may be either the husband or the wife. The person designated as the householder is the "reference person" to whom the relations of all other household members, if any, are recorded. Prior to 1980, the husband was always considered the householder in married-couple households. The number of householders is equal to the number of households. Also, the number of family householders is equal to the number of families.Labor force includes persons employed as civilians or as members of the armed forces, as well as the unemployed (see below) during survey week. The "civilian labor force" (see above) comprises all civilians classified as employed or unemployed.

Labor force participation rate represents the proportion of the noninstitutional population (see below) that is in the labor force. The civilian labor force participation rate is the ratio of the civilian labor force to the civilian noninstitutional population. Married couple is defined for census purposes as a husband and wife enumerated as members of the same household. The married couple may or may not have children living with them. The expression "married-couple" before the term "household", "family", or "subfamily" indicates that the household, family or subfamily is maintained by a husband and wife. The number of married couples equals the count of married-couple families plus related and unrelated married-couple subfamilies.

Median is the measure of central tendency that occupies the middle position in a rank order of values. It generally has the same number of items above it as below it. If there is an even number of items in the group, the median is taken to be the average of the middle two items.

Nonfamily householder is a person maintaining a household alone or with nonrelatives only.

Noninstitutional population is all those who are not inmates of an institution such as a home, school, hospital or ward for the physically or mentally handicapped; a hospital or ward for mental, tubercular, or chronic disease patients; a home for unmarried mothers; a nursing, convalescent, or rest home for the aged and dependent; an orphanage; or a correctional institution.

Own children are family members who are sons and daughters, including stepchildren and adopted children, of the householder. "Own children" in a subfamily are sons and daughters of the married couple or parent in the subfamily.

Poverty is based on a definition developed by the Social Security Administration in 1964 and revised in 1969 and 1981. The poverty index provides a range of income cutoffs adjusted by such factors as family size, sex of the family head, and number of children under 18 years old. The poverty thresholds rise each year by the same percentage as the annual average Consumer Price Index.

Racial/ethnic group is a classification that indicates racial or ethnic heritage based on self-identification based on the Office of Management and Budget standard classification scheme presented below. (Note that two groups, American Indian or Alaskan Native and Asian or Pacific Islander, are not presented in most indicators in this report because separate data for these groups are unreliable because of small sample sizes.)

White includes persons having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East. Normally excludes persons of Hispanic origin except for tabulations produced by the Bureau of the Census, which are noted accordingly in this book.

Black includes those having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. Normally excludes persons of Hispanic origin except for tabulations produced by the Bureau of the Census, which are noted accordingly in this book.

Black and other races includes all persons who identify themselves in the enumeration process to be other than white. At the time of the 1970 Census of Population, 89 percent of the black and other population group were black; the remainder were American Indian, Alaskan Natives, and Asian and Pacific Islanders. The term "black" is used in this book when the relevant data are provided exclusively for the black population.

Hispanic or Spanish origin are persons who identify themselves as being of Hispanic or Spanish origin or descent. Persons of Hispanic origin, in particular, are those who indicate that their origin is Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or some other Hispanic origin. Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race. In the 1970 Census of Population, approximately 96 percent of the Hispanic population were white.

Subfamily or related subfamily is a married couple with or without children, or one parent with one or more own single (never-married) children under 18 years old, living in a household and related to, but not including, the person or couple who maintains the household. The most common example of a related subfamily is a young married couple sharing the home of the husband's or wife's parents. The number of related subfamilies is not included in the count of families.

Total expenditures per pupil in average daily attendance includes all expenditures allocable to per pupil costs divided by average daily attendance. These allocable expenditures include current expenditures of regular school programs, interest on school debt, and capital outlay. Beginning in 1980- 81, expenditures for other programs (summer schools, community colleges, and private schools) have been included.

Unemployed persons include all persons who did not work during the survey week, who had made specific efforts to find a job within the past 4 weeks, and who were available for work during the survey week (except for temporary illness). Also included as unemployed are those who did not work at all, were available for work, and were waiting to be called back to a job from which they had been laid off, or were waiting to report to a new wage or salary job within 30 days.

Unemployment rate represents the number unemployed as a percent of the civilian labor force (see above).Unrelated subfamily is a group of two persons or more who are related to each other by birth, marriage, or adoption, but who are not related to the householder. The unrelated subfamily may include persons such as guests, roomers, boarders, or resident employees and their relatives living in a household. The number of unrelated subfamily members is included in the number of household members but is not included in the count of family members.

[Introduction] [Indicator 1. Number of Young Adults]