Who we are

At every decade since 1790, Americans have painted a vivid self-portrait by numbers that reveals in stunning detail who we are as a nation. As the last decade of the twentieth century opened, the bicentennial census of 1990 captured a country radically transformed - a transformation with profound social, economic, and political consequences that we are only beginning to grasp. In Who We Are, Sam Roberts, urban affairs columnist for The New York Times, has fashioned the raw figures into a dynamic picture of the American people and a preview of where we're going as the next century begins. A compelling, expertly guided tour of the places and personalities behind the numbers, Who We Are offers a gripping view of how and where we live, our changing complexion, what we're worth, and how we're aging. The average American is a 32.7-year-old married white woman living in a mortgaged suburban three-bedroom home heated by natural gas. She's also a myth. Society and its basic building block, the family, have been dramatically redefined by delayed marriage, deferred childbirth, and divorce. One in four children born in the 1980s is being reared by a single parent; six in ten mothers with young