Category Archives: Demographics

See Maine’s worsening drug overdose problem

The rate of drug overdose deaths in Maine is getting worse along with the rest of the country, driven by addiction to opioids such as prescription painkillers and heroin. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control released an analysis of that data Tuesday, as the Maine Legislature and governor on Tuesday approved funding new investigators at the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and giving more money […]

Maine’s drinking again like it’s 1970

Maine’s been drinking more lately. Per capita alcohol consumption (ages 21 and up) has been on the rise since the late 1990s, returning near levels of the early 1970s, according to annual reports from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The reports are based on state data, when available, and industry shipment data in other cases […]

Report: Women make up 70 percent of Maine’s minimum wage workers

Analysis by the National Women’s Law Center estimated women in Maine make up a disproportionate share of the state’s minimum wage workers, putting it among the six states with the highest such gap. The NWLC analysis issued Wednesday is based on unpublished annual average wage and salary earnings from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics and reflect […]

Women make up less than a quarter of Maine’s top earners

It’s Equal Pay Day, when the national gap in earnings between men and women (in all its various forms) takes center stage. The Pew Research Center reported today that the pay gap appears to be shrinking among younger women, at a rate The Washington Post projected would eliminate the pay gap in Maine by about 2057. Maine’s disparity in pay is about 3 […]

Census: A greater share of Maine 20-somethings are in poverty

The U.S. Census Bureau unloaded gobs of data about gobs of places in the country today, but focused on changes among the country’s population between 18 to 34 — a group I’m just calling 20-somethings. Now, if you’re thinking not some more messy old spreadsheets, think again! In writing about a group of people who grew up alongside the Internet, the Census […]