America’s big industrial cities are shrinking as people move to the South and West and to the suburbs, according to new Census estimates released today (AP via Centre Daily Times). Phoenix is now the country’s fifth-largest city, surpassing Philadelphia.

State of World Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth and a youth supplement, Growing Up Urban, are available online from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The report predicts that more than half of the world’s population will live in towns and cities by next year, and urban growth will be particularly fast in Africa and Asia (New York Times).

Cities are enlarging street signs, widening sidewalks, and making other adjustments to prepare for an expected surge in the elderly population by 2030 (USA Today).

The Nation reports on increasing levels of suburban poverty in the US.

The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) has annouced the release of wave 3 (2000-2002) of their data. Click here for more information on PHDCN.

PRI Affiliates may request these data from the Data Archivist.

Diversitydata.org, a project of the Harvard School of Public Health, provides access to indicators of well-being for US metropolitan areas and racial and ethnic populations.

This resource has been added to the PRI Library Reference Links page, a list of online resources for population researchers.

A study published online last week by the American Journal of Public Health found that too many preschoolers are obese, and a greater percentage of Hispanic children are obese by age 3. The study looked at a national sample of children from low-income families. (CNN.com)

Urban Agglomerations 2005 and Urban and Rural Areas 2005 are now available from the United Nations Population Division.

A new study published in Ethnicity & Disease (PDF) found that residents of mostly black neighborhoods are more likely to report themselves in poor health (kaisernetwork.org Daily Health Policy Report).

Understanding Diverse Neighborhoods in an Era of Demographic Change focuses on the racial and ethnic diversity of mixed-income urban and suburban neighborhoods.