1.6 million Americans don’t have indoor plumbing. Here’s where they live
As it turns out, a lot of people. According to the latest American Community Survey, nearly 630,000 occupied households lack complete plumbing facilities, which means that they are without one or more of the following: a toilet, a tub or shower, or running water. The Census Bureau says that the average household contains 2.6 individuals, which means that today, in 2014, in the wealthiest nation on Earth, upwards of 1.6 million people are living without full indoor plumbing.
An outhouse near McCall, Idaho. Photo by Flickr user Charles Knowles, used under a Creative Commons License.
BY CHRISTOPHER INGRAHAM-April 23
The Pew Research Center's excellent FactTank blog reported Tuesday that the Census Bureau is considering dropping a number of questions from its American Community Survey. The ACS has been a perennial target of Republican lawmakers, who say that its questions on everything from household income to commute times constitute an invasion of privacy.