Yesterday was the most exciting day of the year for demographers who moonlight as futurists. For the rest of us was just a Thursday.

But it just so happens to be the Thursday that the Department of Finance’s Demographics Research Unit released the population projections through 2060. The projections cover detailed information about age, race, and gender population changes for each county. And by detailed, I mean nine decimal places.

For instance, the projection estimates that there will be 3806.311917436 white, male, 79-year olds in Sacramento County in 2058. Unless I end up moving to Bishop, in which case there will be 3805.311917436 of them. (And Inyo County’s number would rise from about 110.4 to 111.4.)

Joking aside, these numbers can be very useful for counties. Supervisors need to plan for growth in their transportation, health, and social service systems, among others, and these projections provide the information that can help do that.

Parts of the information are available in easy-to-use spreadsheets, and a complete package of the information is provided in a format number-crunchers can import into their databases. You can find it all  online here.