I had a brief meeting yesterday with Jed Kolko, the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs at DOC, during which he alerted me to a major change for CT geography.
As of spring 2022, CT's eight counties have been replaced by nine COGs/Planning Regions. These will be used beginning with ACS and Population Estimates data released next year (ACS 2022 1- and 5-year data).
The new regions will be treated as "county equivalents" for statistical purposes, although the county-equivalent designation will also make them eligible to apply for federal grant programs open to counties. The new regions will get new FIPS codes.
Obviously this will impact any county (county-equivalent) longitudinal data comparisons for the state.
I have heard nothing about this until Mr. Kolko told me about it. It seems pretty important though.
Here's a short PDF explaining the change: https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/reference/ct_county_equiv_change.pdf
Much longer FR notice, with a map, population comparisons, and new FIPS codes: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/06/06/2022-12063/change-to-county-equivalents-in-the-state-of-connecticut
-GR
Hi, Glenn. The Census Bureau did report this change some months ago. There's a way to sign up for Federal Register Notice alerts related to the Census Bureau's work, which is a good way to keep up in real-time on operational and methodological proposals. Thanks! Terri Ann (Stamford, CT)
Well, I get FR notices relayed through the SDC mailing list, and of course all this info is on the Bureau's website. But if I didn't notice at the time (and I consider myself pretty attuned to census news), maybe others didn't either. Just trying to help. Also, Mr. Kolko asked me to spread the word.
The Census Bureau publishes multiple "news" bulletins of one sort or another every day. Easy for things to get buried, that's for sure! Keep up the good work, Glenn!