- See more at: http://blogtimenow.com/blogging/automatically-redirect-blogger-blog-another-blog-website/#sthash.Q6qPkwFC.dpuf Awaiting the 2010 Census: An End of the Year Demographic Teaser! | Bronx News Networkbronx

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Awaiting the 2010 Census: An End of the Year Demographic Teaser!

I know things are slow in the West Bronx news-wise, so in addition to Jordan's editorial request, here's an end of the year treat for all of you data-geeks like me:

The Census Bureau, in addition to gearing up for 2010, has been keeping busy all decade long with the American Community Survey which tracks smaller samples of the population in various geographies. Because of the small sample size, much of the data isn’t so reliable, and for New York City, there isn’t much below the county level. Recently, the Census’s American Fact Finder website has released 3-year estimates for 2005-2007. While the data isn’t quite as current as the 2007 ACS, it has a much larger sample size than the one year ACS and should be considered more reliable (although still nowhere close to the decennial census).

I took a quick look at some of the data on immigration to uncover certain trends to expect in 2010, and to verify some of what we see in our neighborhoods everyday. Overall, the foreign-born population in the Bronx is estimated to have jumped 12.5% since 2000 from 385,827 to 434,251. Foreign-born residents now likely comprise 31.7% of the borough’s population, up from 29.0% in 2000. Citywide, the Bronx now is estimated to have 14.3% of all foreign born residents, up from 13.4% in 2000.

Where are the big changes coming from? Counteracting drop-offs in the Irish- and Yugoslavian-born populations are dramatic increases in West African, Dominican and Mexican populations (no big surprises here). Almost half of the 60,500 West African-born NYC residents live in the Bronx, including 63% of those born in Ghana (estimates show about 12,600 Ghanaian-born Bronx residents).

In 2000, Manhattan still had more Dominican-born residents than the Bronx, but there is little doubt that this is still the case. Estimates show the Dominican-born population in the Bronx has grown from 124,000 in 2000 to nearly 140,000 in recent years, while Manhattan’s share has dropped from 125,000 to 109,000 (many fleeing the rapidly rising rents in upper Manhattan). About 39% of all NYC residents born in the D.R. live in the Bronx.

It comes as little surprise that the Mexican-born population in the Bronx has grown dramatically. In fact, estimates show it has virtually doubled since 2000 to over 38,000. The overall number of Central American-born Bronx residents has shot up a third from 46,000 to nearly 62,000, or about 22% of the City’s total.

The Bangladeshi-born population has also swelled from about 4,000 to an estimated 7,500. In addition, the relatively small Middle Eastern-born community (referred to on the Census as Western Asia) has grown 75% from 2,250 to almost 4,000.

Feel free to post any questions about this data or a specific question about a country I didn’t mention. Happy New Year, everyone!

Update
I posted this in the comment section based on a question about changes in the Puerto Rican population:

I was able to pull out corresponding tables from 2000 and the 2005-2007 ACS estimates called "HISPANIC OR LATINO ORIGIN BY SPECIFIC ORIGIN" which shows us what people are identifying as (as opposed to where they were born). According to these data sets, the Bronx had a net gain of 215 residents who identified as Puerto Rican. As a percentage of total residents this is a drop of .6%, and as a percentage of all Latinos, this is a drop of 3.6%. Across the five boroughs, Manhattan and Brooklyn lost 2,500 and 10,300 Puerto Ricans respectively, while Queens and Staten Island gained 2,500 and 6,900 respectively. Obviously, the biggest changes are in Brooklyn and Staten Island, the latter of which increased its self-identifying Puerto Rican population by nearly 25%.

Overall there was a net loss of 3,323 Puerto Ricans in NYC, while the surrounding counties (Fairfield in CT, Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic and Union in NJ, and Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester in NY) picked up about 20,000. Westchester had the biggest numerical increase at close to 7,000 (similar to the increase in Staten Island) while Morris, Bergen and Orange counties has the largest percentage increases.

From another angle, Puerto Ricans comprise a smaller share of all Latinos in virtually every county since 2000 -- the exceptions being Morris County NJ and Manhattan, where it's simply a case of other Latinos leaving faster than Puerto Ricans. The biggest estimated growth among Latino groups in the Bronx? In order: Domincans +80,772, Mexicans +27,216, Ecuadorians +10,415, and Hondurans +6,877.

Any other questions?

4 comments:

  1. Hi Greg, great analysis! Bronx Borough Historian Lloyd Ultan told me that Puerto Ricans are moving to the suburbs, do Census data confirm that?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stephen,

    Like I mentioned in the post, these are just estimates. We'll have to wait till the 2010 data is released to know exact numbers. But I was able to pull out corresponding tables from 2000 and the 2005-2007 ACS estimates called "HISPANIC OR LATINO ORIGIN BY SPECIFIC ORIGIN" which shows us what people are identifying as (as opposed to where they were born).

    According to these data sets, the Bronx had a net gain of 215 residents who identified as Puerto Rican. As a percentage of total residents this is a drop of .6%, and as a percentage of all Latinos, this is a drop of 3.6%. Across the five boroughs, Manhattan and Brooklyn lost 2,500 and 10,300 Puerto Ricans respectively, while Queens and Staten Island gained 2,500 and 6,900 respectively. Obviously, the biggest changes are in Brooklyn and Staten Island, the latter of which increased its self-identifying Puerto Rican population by nearly 25%.

    Overall there was a net loss of 3,323 Puerto Ricans in NYC, while the surrounding counties (Fairfield in CT, Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic and Union in NJ, and Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester in NY) picked up about 20,000. Westchester had the biggest numerical increase at close to 7,000 (similar to the increase in Staten Island) while Morris, Bergen and Orange counties has the largest percentage increases.

    From another angle, Puerto Ricans comprise a smaller share of all Latinos in virtually every county since 2000 -- the exceptions being Morris County NJ and Manhattan, where it's simply a case of other Latinos leaving faster than Puerto Ricans.

    The biggest estimated growth among Latino groups in the Bronx? In order: Domincans +80,772, Mexicans +27,216, Ecuadorians +10,415, and Hondurans +6,877.

    Any other questions?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Are Puerto Ricans still the largest ethnic group in the Bronx? Have the numbers Stagnated? Fallen lightly or significantly?

    ReplyDelete

Bronx News Network reserves the right to remove comments that include personal attacks, name calling, foul language, commercial advertisements, spam, or any language that might be considered threatening, libelous or inciting hate.

User comments are reviewed by BxNN staff and may be included or excluded at our discretion.

If what you have to say is unrelated to this particular post, please visit our readers' forum.