The exodus continues
Thursday, Jun 22, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Cook County in 2016 again recorded the largest black population of any county in the U.S., but it carries that title with less conviction than previous years as more African-Americans move to outlying suburbs or warmer states in the South and West, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Between 2015 and 2016, more than 12,000 black residents left Cook County, an increase from the previous year when about 9,000 residents left. […]
Some of those who left Chicago and Cook County relocated to other parts of the state, but Illinois still recorded a population drop of about 10,000 black residents between 2015 and 2016, more than any other state. Experts say it is an indication that the majority of the state’s black flight is occurring in Chicago. […]
Africans-Americans are leaving in search of stability, experts say, hoping to find stable incomes and safe neighborhoods, something they feel Chicago isn’t offering them. The city of Chicago lost 181,000 black residents between 2000 and 2010, according to census data. […]
William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, said he thinks the trend points to conditions beyond just crime.
“People move from the city to the suburbs for a host of things, crime being one of them. But I wouldn’t expect those people to move from a whole metropolitan area. Something bigger’s going on,” he said, referencing the region and state’s general population loss.
* On to the Daily Herald…
Cook County saw a 13.3 percent increase in residents over age 65, but in the collar counties the growth was much steeper.
The over-65 population rose 24.6 percent in DuPage County, 34.2 percent in Kane County, 24.5 percent in Lake County, 28.5 percent in McHenry County and 31.4 percent in Will County.
The number of Hispanic residents, the fastest-growing group, rose 5.6 percent in Cook County, 8.7 percent in DuPage County, 6.5 percent in Kane County, 7.3 percent in Lake County, 11.4 percent in McHenry County and 10.5 percent in Will County since the decade began.
The total population in the suburbs is relatively flat. Kane County shows the largest population increase with 3 percent growth to 1.06 million residents.
* Meanwhile, from the AP…
The Census Bureau reported that the median age of Americans — the age at which half are older and half are younger — rose nationally from just over 35 years to nearly 38 years in the years between 2000 and 2016, driven by the aging of the “baby boom” generation.
The number of residents age 65 and older grew from 35 million to 49.2 million during those 16 years, jumping from 12 percent of the total population to 15 percent. […]
The Asian population and those who identified as being of two or more races grew by 3 percent each, to 21 million and 8.5 million, respectively. Hispanics grew by 2 percent to 57.5 million. The black population grew by 1.2 percent to nearly 47 million.
The number of non-Hispanic whites grew by only 5,000, leaving that population relatively steady at 198 million of the nation’s 325 million people.
- UIC Guy - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 12:10 pm:
“The Census Bureau reported that the median age of Americans — the age at which half are older and half are younger — rose nationally from just over 35 years to nearly 38 years in the years between 2000 and 2016, driven by the aging of the “baby boom” generation.”
I don’t think the rise in the median age can have been driven by the baby boomers. They are generally defined as people born between 1946 and 1961. How many of those people were under 35 in 2000? None of them. They were all already in the older half of the population. Their getting older, and being such a large group, made no difference to the median (to the mean, yes, but for the median, No).
Not an important point, but it makes you wonder about the reliability of the AP more generally….
- Rocky Rosi - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 12:18 pm:
Is anyone shocked? I wonder if this will lead to redlining in the suburbs?
- Amalia - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 12:21 pm:
at some point, ward and district lines will become a super hot topic.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 12:24 pm:
Daley got the federales to tear down those CHA towers for a reason.
In the Tale of Two Cities, if you found yourself in one of the city’s shooting galleries and could bail, of course you would. But decent housing elsewhere in the city might be out of reach.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 12:43 pm:
In addition to better affordable and safer housing, there are better job opportunities in the suburbs too. And since public transit doesn’t really work for city-to-suburb commuters, moving to Bolingbrook or Schaumburg or Aurora or elsewhere makes a lot of sense.
And don’t forget, African Americans retire too. Many have family ties to the south, and the winters in Mississippi aren’t horrible.
- Ron - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 1:39 pm:
“there are better job opportunities in the suburbs too”
What? The best jobs in the region and state are all downtown.
- Ron - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 1:39 pm:
“the winters in Mississippi aren’t horrible”
Yeah, but Mississippi is horrible.
- Ron - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 1:41 pm:
This should surprise absolutely no one. 180,000 african americans left Chicago from 2000-2010. We are now losing them a little slower than previously. But who could blame them for leaving? Many live in horrible neighborhoods filled with crime and violence. It’s the legacy of racism that they are fleeing.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 1:51 pm:
===It’s the legacy of racism that they are fleeing.===
It was the actuality of Jim Crow that brought them here.
- RNUG - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 1:54 pm:
== It’s the legacy of racism that they are fleeing. ==
I suspect it’s more the gangs they are fleeing, looking for a safer area to raise a family.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 1:57 pm:
===Yeah, but Mississippi is horrible.===
Mississippi was once the nation’s only black-majority state, before the Great Migration. It is probably the only state that might yet again attain that status someday. And if that happens, it may not be the reliable national GOP vote it is today.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 2:01 pm:
If Kane County has 1.06 million residents, they’ve gained nearly a half million from last year…I think it’s a typo. Nevertheless, Kane and Kendall are two of the only counties that remain on the upswing in IL (hat tip to OW’s neighborhood).
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 2:11 pm:
===…Kendall are two of the only counties that remain on the upswing in IL (hat tip to OW’s neighborhood).===
We have a great deal of growth and housing being built, lots of farm land is evolving into housing developments and neighborhoods. Schools in the past decade have popped up, seemingly overnight.
Industry isn’t growing as fast. It’s the residences/homes growing.
- Roman - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 2:42 pm:
Not saying that there aren’t real, current economic increasing the outflow, BUT:
Part of this can be attributed to normal urban migratory patterns that other ethnic groups have followed. Share an apartment in the inner city…get a small house on the outskirts of town…move to a bigger house in the burbs…retire in the sunbelt.
Fleeing crime in the city, searching for better schools, leaving town for better economic opportunities…this has been happening for 100 years. The difference now is, no new group of immigrants are replacing those who are leaving. From World War I to the 1970’s, African-Americans replaced white ethnic groups who left. From the 1980’s to the mid-2000’s, Mexican immigration replaced those who were leaving. That flow stopped when the Great Recession hit and has never returned.
- don the legend - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 2:45 pm:
Also “It’s the legacy of racism that they are fleeing.”
PhD in Sociology or Anthropology or maybe Behavioral Science.
Any of these, Ron, or maybe something else?
- City Zen - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 2:50 pm:
The fastest growing segment of the population doesn’t pay state income taxes. #thisisfine
You don’t have to move out of Illinois for the state to lose revenue. Simply retire.
- City Zen - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 2:51 pm:
==PhD in Sociology or Anthropology or maybe Behavioral Science.==
My wife has a PhD in Anthropologie.
- Ron - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 2:56 pm:
don, what’s your explanation as to the horrible conditions in african american neighborhoods? No racism involved?
- resistanceisfutile - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 3:17 pm:
UIC Guy:
All the people born from 1945-65 are aging but few are dying, while there was a small ‘baby bust’ in the years when the Boomers deferred having children; the combination pulls the entire median to the older age.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 3:17 pm:
I don’t doubt that there is a racial angle or 2 that can be used to explain reverse migration from Cook County to the Deep South and other places, ironic as it may seem given the history. But I would contend that the nexus would strongly include crime, taxes, jobs, weather, perceived quality of education, family connections, and a host of other things.
- Ron - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 3:25 pm:
Weather I’ll grant you. And of course taxes. Illinois is top 5 in state and local tax burden in the nation.
The issues with crime, jobs, perceived quality of education are all derived from legacy racism in Chicago.
- Ma'at's Feather - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 7:10 pm:
Ron makes a valid point about racism. Chicago is one of the most segregated cities in the country and is currently experiencing a level of gentrification equal to that in D.C. There are a lot of factors involved.
- resistanceisfutile - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 9:19 pm:
More on the population pyramid:
As it turns out, those born in the first half of the Baby Boom have begun to die off, but those born 1955-1965 are still numerous enough for there still to be a bulge in the python:
Chart 1: Population Pyramid of the U. S., Total Resident Population in 2015
https://www.census.gov/people/news/img/vol4iss9-4.png
Add to this the long tail that comes from increased longevity, and all those individuals are enough to pull the median to the older age.
The chart is from the Census Bureau’s “Survey News,” [https://www.census.gov/people/news/issues/vol4issue9.html].
All the most recent news reports come from this Census Bureau news release:
“The Nation’s Older Population Is Still Growing, Census Bureau Reports”
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2017/cb17-100.html
This has an extensive breakdown of age variations by race, ethnicity, and location. When just the racial and ethnic categories are compared, the Census Bureau found:
“The non-Hispanic white alone population grew by 5,000 people, remaining at 198.0 million.”
A net increase of only 5,000 people over a 16 year period? Someone had better get busy persuading more Whites in the 3rd and 4th social-class quintiles that it is okay to include a larger proportion of high-achieving Asians and Hispanics as Ethnic Whites, what Nell Painter might call a fourth “expansion of whiteness,” or . . . well, I’ll just leave it at that, for now.
- Ron - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 10:13 pm:
Wow, only 5,000 additional whites? The Republican party better start preparing.
- David - Thursday, Jun 22, 17 @ 11:36 pm:
The gop is it’s called first supression….Russian voter till shopping. Speaking of growth the UN released its World population estimates. Basically flat except Africa.Its not just Illinois
- Lynn S. - Friday, Jun 23, 17 @ 5:23 am:
The “Baby Boom” was 1946 - 1964.
Strange as it may seem, my mom and Barack Obama are both Baby Boomers.
I’m in the early years of the “Baby Bust”, 1965-1980.