Newspapers

February 20, 2012 — The Editors

Annual revenue generated by the newspaper industry in the United States fell again in 2010, following a pattern seen throughout the last decade. The most recent Service Annual Survey, published by the U.S. Census Bureau, shows a decline in revenues from 2005 to 2010 for the newspaper publishing industry of 30 percent, and this represents a loss of revenue before inflation. The loss when adjusted for inflation was 42 percent.

Today’s market size is the size of the newspaper industry in the United States based on annual revenues in 2010.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2010
Market size: $34.7 billion
Source: “Table 3.0.1 Information Sector (NAICS 51)—Estimated Revenue for Employer Firms: 2005 through 2010,” Service Annual Survey, February 2, 2012, available online here.
Posted on February 20, 2012

Posted in Information Technology, National Infrastructure, Publishing. No Comments »

Cantaloups and Other Agricultural Commodities

December 30, 2011 — The Editors

Being people who work with statistical data every day it was with great pleasure that we read recently that the USDA has decided to reverse its earlier decision to eliminate dozens of longstanding statistical reports that it has maintained for decades. Turns out the industries being covered by these reports find them extremely valuable, essencial really. So, industry leaders explained just how important those reports are to their planning and financing and the USDA reconsidered. We find this development most encouraging. Some things really are best done at the large scale by an entity not motivated by its own commercial interests.

Today’s market size, selected from a long list of indept USDA commodity reports, is the market for domestic cantaloup. It is the value (farm value or wholesale value) of cantaloups harvested in in the United States in 2010 when 77,430 acres were planted with cantaloup.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2010
Market size: $314.4 million
Source: William Neuman, “U.S. Reverses Decision To End Farming Reports,” The New York Times, December 24, 2011, page B3, available online here. The USDA report on cantaloups can be found online here. The figure used here is from Table 3—U.S. cantaloup: Acreage, yield, production, and value, 1950-2010.
Original source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Posted on December 30, 2011

Posted in Agriculture, Food, Information Technology, National Infrastructure. 1 Comment »

R&D Expenditures Nationally

December 16, 2011 — The Editors

An encouraging statistic for today’s market size post, the growth rate in expenditures on research and development in the United States. Between 1980 and 2008 total spending on R&D grew by 529 percent.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 1980 and 2008
Market size: $63.2 billion and $397.6 billion respectively
Source: “Table 799. Research and Development (R&D) Expenditures by Source and Objective,” Statistical Abstract of the United States 2012, page 522, a PDF version of that page is available here.
Original source: U.S. Census Bureau
Posted on December 16, 2011

Posted in National Infrastructure, Research & Development. No Comments »

Ham Radio Operators

December 9, 2011 — The Editors

Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, uses a designated “radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication,” according to Wikipedia. Ham radio operations are coordinated by the International Telecommunication Union. Ham radio operators must demonstrate knowledge in electronics and regulations in order to obtain a license for their radio station. Once licensed, the ham radio operator can communicate with people throughout the world.

Amateur radio began in the late 19th Century. By the late 20th Century, the hobby’s
popularity was waning; however in the early 21st Century, ham radio saw a surge in the number of enthusiasts. By 2010, the number of ham radio licenses in the United States had increased 60 percent since 1981. In 2007, the United States Federal Communications Commission stopped requiring knowledge of Morse Code in order to obtain a license. The increase in ham radio licenses has been attributed to this. In 2010 alone, there were 30,000 new applications for ham radio licenses.

Today’s market share is the total number of people that have ham radio licenses in the United States.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2010
Market Size: 700,000
Source: Matt Sepic, “Ham Radio Growing in the Age of Twitter,” NPR, April 5, 2010, available online here and “Amateur Radio,” Wikipedia, available online here.
Posted on December 9, 2011

Posted in Broadcasting, Information Technology, National Infrastructure, Telecommunications. No Comments »

Medicare Enrollment

December 7, 2011 — The Editors

Medicare Enrollment stats

Today is the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Today is also the final day of the Medicare annual election period. Only one of these topics lends itself to a market size post. Worth noting—and by way of tying these two things together a little—is the fact that anyone (now an American citizen) who was around on the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked, is now eligible for Medicare.

Today’s market size is the number of people enrolled in the Medicare health insurance system in the United States in 2010. The graphic provides data on enrollment from 1970 to 2010 and shows how this population relates to the total U.S. population over this period.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2010
Market size: 47.2 million
Source: “Table I.1 Medicare Enrollment Trends,” part of the statistical offerings on the federal government’s CMS web site here.
Original source: Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S. Department of Human Health and Services
Posted on November 7, 2011

Posted in Health Care, Insurance, National Infrastructure, Population. No Comments »

Computers in the U.S.

November 29, 2011 — The Editors

The steady rise in demand for computers and electronic computing devices in the United States appears, when charted, as a line moving in exactly the opposite direction as the domestic production and shipments of these same products. This is an industry (NAICS 334111) that highlights a trend towards increasing consumption of a product and declining production of the same which feeds the U.S. trade imbalance. But that leads us to complex questions we don’t really want to address here. Here, we present market sizes and today’s is based on the value of Electronic Computer Manufacturing in the United States in 2000 and 2010 as well as the value of net imports of the same products in 2000 and the forecasted value for 2010.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2000 and 2010
Market size: U.S. manufacturing $69.3 and $27.9 billion
Market size: Net imports $89.4 and $199.3 billion
Source: Computer value of shipments from Annual Survey of Manufactures 1997, and the 2002 Economic Census. Net imports of Electric and electronic equipment from Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2000. Net imports of Computers and electronic products from Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2012.
Posted on November 29, 2011

Posted in Computing, Information Technology, Machinery, Mobile Devices, National Infrastructure. No Comments »

Veterans Enrolled in the VA

November 11, 2011 — The Editors

Today’s post is about veterans since it is the holiday we have designated for remembering our Veterans of foreigh wars. The Department of Veterans Affairs has since 1999 done an annual survey to help track the number of veterans who are enrolled to receive health benefits through the Veterans Administration (VA). It may surprise some people to discover that a veteran of the U.S. military would even need to enroll in anything to receive VA benefits but things are more complicated as it turns out.

Here is an explanation from the VA on the need to enroll annually for some veterans. “Enrollments are renewed annually and many veterans will stay enrolled each year without any action on their part. Most veterans who are not receiving monthly compensation or pension checks from VA, however, must complete an annual financial statement known as a Means Test. Completing a Means Test allows the VA to place you in the correct Priority Group for determination of copayments. It also ensures that your local VA receives reimbursement from VA for the health care provided to you.”
Link to quoted source.

The market size listed below is the number of U.S. veterans enrolled to receive VA benefits in 2002 and in 2010.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2002 and 2010
Market size: 6.2 million (approximately 25% of the veteran population in 2002) and 7.8 million (approximately 35% of the veteran population in 2010)
Source: “Table 7.1—Perceived Health Status by Year,” 2010 Survey of Veteran
Enrollees’ Health and Reliance Upon VA, July 2011, page 74, available in a PDF format here.
Original source: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Posted on 11/11/11

Posted in Health Care, Military Services, National Infrastructure. No Comments »

Foreign Students in the United States

November 7, 2011 — The Editors

While within the United States there is a great deal of debate about how the higher education system as a whole is functioning, it’s appeal to those from outside the country is as strong as ever. The number of students traveling from outside the United States to attend a U.S. institute of higher learning has been increasing steadily during the first decade of the 21st century. This is both a challenge and a benefit for U.S. colleges and universities as these students often need intensive language assistance but also pay full tuition. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, foreign students in the United States contribute approximately $20 billion dollars to the economy annually.

Today’s market size is the size of the population of foreign students at U.S. institutions of higher learning in 2009.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009/2010 School Year
Market size: 690,923 students — in terms of country of origin, the three leading countries are China which sent 18.5% of the students in 2009/2010, India which sent 15.2% and South Korea which sent 10.4%
Source: A Press Release for the report titled Open Doors 2010 which is put out annually by the Institute of International Education. The report is issued annually and the press release announcing the 2010 edition is availalble online here.
Original source: Institute for International Education and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
Posted on November 7, 2011

Posted in Educational Services, International Trade, National Infrastructure. No Comments »

Postal Service Mailboxes

October 28, 2011 — The Editors

Blue USPO Mailbox

While the United States Postal Service publicizes the closing of thousands of post offices nationwide, the laying off of workers, and the end of Saturday delivery, one service the Postal Service offers has been slowly, quietly disappearing: the corner mailbox.

Once a staple in many neighborhoods, the blue mailbox on the corner is now slowly fading into history. Nancy Pope of the Smithsonian Institution commented thus about the significance of the corner mailbox: “Nothing says you’re on an American street more than the blue mailbox. It’s part of a neighborhood identity. It’s reassurance, it represents our ability to communicate with one another. When you take this away, something is lost.” At one time these blue mailboxes were seemingly everywhere. A convenience that perhaps has been taken for granted over the years. Data show the number of United States Postal Service blue mailboxes nationwide.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 1985 and 2011
Market Size: 400,000 and 160,000 respectively
Source: Bob Greene, “Farewell My Mailbox,” CNN.com, September 8, 2011, available online here. The charming little image used above was obtained from this site, and used with our thanks.
Original Source: Research by Carolyn Jones of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Posted on October 28, 2011

Posted in Mail & Postage, Metals, National Infrastructure. 1 Comment »

“e-Learning” hardware and software

September 14, 2011 — The Editors

The use of computers and other technological devices in the classroom has long been a source of debate among educators. Equipping schools with the most cutting edge technology is costly and the benefits of these expenditure in actually teaching students is not always evident. Nonetheless, in a world in which computers are ubiquitous the desire to have our children use modern technology with confidence helps to drive growth in the market for “e-learning” devices and software.

Today’s market size is a forecast of the value of the e-learning sub-sector of “the global education market” in the year 2015.

Geographic reference: World
Year: forecast for 2015
Market size: $69 Billion
Source: “Brave New World: The Changing Landscape of Education and Technology,” April 2010, a report posted online by the firm Spire Research & Consulting and availalbe here.
Original source: Wende van der, “The Role of US Higher Education in the Global E-Learning Market,” Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), Research & Occasional Paper Series, University of California, Berkeley, 2002
Posted on September 14, 2011

Posted in Educational Services, Information Technology, National Infrastructure, Publishing, Schools. No Comments »
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