Census finds Bristol more educated and diverse
BRISTOL – Preliminary data from the U.S. Census shows that Bristol has reversed the population slide it experienced in the 1990s while growing both more educated and more diverse.
While the city’s workforce has grown even faster than its population, the percentage of families and individuals living in poverty appears to have grown as well.
The American Community Survey and Population Estimates Program examined data from 2005 through 2009 before releasing a snapshot of America recently that included the most in-depth data for Bristol since Census 2000.
Until the 2010 Census information is fully available – only state and national population totals have yet been released – there is no better source to see how the Mum City has fared in the past decade.
The most alarming data for Bristol in the 2000 Census was that its population sank for the first time since 1820.
The new survey indicates that’s no longer the case. The city’s population rose by 1.3 percent between 2000 and 2009 to 60,869.
The community survey data uses an average for the five-year period studied so it doesn’t peg a population estimate to any particular moment. Using this method for the first time to give reasonably reliable information, it aims to give an accurate portrayal of the period studied.
Because the Census itself no longer asks as many questions as it once did, the survey is meant to take up the slack and give America an ongoing picture of itself.
In Bristol, the data confirms what free and reduced income lunch trends have shown for years: that the city is seeing more poverty.
In 2000, 4.8 percent of Bristol families had incomes low enough to fall below the poverty level while 6.6 percent of individuals did.
The survey found those numbers have risen sharply, to 5.6 percent of families and 7.7 percent of individuals. However, the margin of error is so large that’s it’s statistically possible there hasn’t been a rise at all.
What’s clearer is that the city has grown more educated, with 6.6 percent more of its adults holding at least a high school diploma and the number with a bachelor’s degree or higher up by 21 percent.
Almost one in five adults over the age of 25 in Bristol possess a college degree and only 14 percent lack a high school diploma.
Though Bristol remains a community dominated by whites, who make up 88 percent of the population, there are rising numbers of blacks, Latinos, Asians and people of mixed heritage. Latinos now make up 8.1 percent of the overall city population, up from 5.3 percent in 2000.
Also noteworthy is that senior citizens make up less of the population than they did in 2000 – 14.3 percent of the total versus 14.9 percent a decade ago. It’s not clear why since people are living longer than ever and the percentage of young children has shrunk slightly during the same period.
The city’s labor force, all those 16 and older, has risen by about 1,500 people in the same time, to 34,332.
And, yes, it is taking longer for all those people to get to work.
Travel time to work has gone up from 22 to 23 minutes for the average person.longer asks as many questions as it once did, the survey is meant to take up the slack and give America an ongoing picture of itself.
In Bristol, the data confirms what free and reduced income lunch trends have shown for years: that the city is seeing more poverty.
In 2000, 4.8 percent of Bristol families had incomes low enough to fall below the poverty level while 6.6 percent of individuals did.
The survey found those numbers have risen sharply, to 5.6 percent of families and 7.7 percent of individuals. However, the margin of error is so large that’s it’s statistically possible there hasn’t been a rise at all.
What’s clearer is that the city has grown more educated, with 6.6 percent more of its adults holding at least a high school diploma and the number with a bachelor’s degree or higher up by 21 percent.
Almost one in five adults over the age of 25 in Bristol possess a college degree and only 14 percent lack a high school diploma.
Though Bristol remains a community dominated by whites, who make up 88 percent of the population, there are rising numbers of blacks, Latinos, Asians and people of mixed heritage. Latinos now make up 8.1 percent of the overall city population, up from 5.3 percent in 2000.
Also noteworthy is that senior citizens make up less of the population than they did in 2000 – 14.3 percent of the total versus 14.9 percent a decade ago. It’s not clear why since people are living longer than ever and the percentage of young children has shrunk slightly during the same period.
The city’s labor force, all those 16 and older, has risen by about 1,500 people in the same time, to 34,332.
And, yes, it is taking longer for all those people to get to work.
Travel time to work has gone up from 22 to 23 minutes for the average person.longer asks as many questions as it once did, the survey is meant to take up the slack and give America an ongoing picture of itself.
In Bristol, the data confirms what free and reduced income lunch trends have shown for years: that the city is seeing more poverty.
In 2000, 4.8 percent of Bristol families had incomes low enough to fall below the poverty level while 6.6 percent of individuals did.
The survey found those numbers have risen sharply, to 5.6 percent of families and 7.7 percent of individuals.
However, the margin of error is so large that’s it’s statistically possible there hasn’t been a rise at all.
What’s clearer is that the city has grown more educated, with 6.6 percent more of its adults holding at least a high school diploma and the number with a bachelor’s degree or higher up by 21 percent.
Almost one in five adults over the age of 25 in Bristol possess a college degree and only 14 percent lack a high school diploma.
Though Bristol remains a community dominated by whites, who make up 88 percent of the population, there are rising numbers of blacks, Latinos, Asians and people of mixed heritage. Latinos now make up 8.1 percent of the overall city population, up from 5.3 percent in 2000.
Also noteworthy is that senior citizens make up less of the population than they did in 2000 – 14.3 percent of the total versus 14.9 percent a decade ago.
It’s not clear why since people are living longer than ever and the percentage of young children has shrunk slightly during the same period.
The city’s labor force, all those 16 and older, has risen by about 1,500 people in the same time, to 34,332.
And, yes, it is taking longer for all those people to get to work.
Travel time to work has gone up from 22 to 23 minutes for the average person.longer asks as many questions as it once did, the survey is meant to take up the slack and give America an ongoing picture of itself.
In Bristol, the data confirms what free and reduced income lunch trends have shown for years: that the city is seeing more poverty.
In 2000, 4.8 percent of Bristol families had incomes low enough to fall below the poverty level while 6.6 percent of individuals did.
The survey found those numbers have risen sharply, to 5.6 percent of families and 7.7 percent of individuals.
However, the margin of error is so large that’s it’s statistically possible there hasn’t been a rise at all.
What’s clearer is that the city has grown more educated, with 6.6 percent more of its adults holding at least a high school diploma and the number with a bachelor’s degree or higher up by 21 percent.
Almost one in five adults over the age of 25 in Bristol possess a college degree and only 14 percent lack a high school diploma.
Though Bristol remains a community dominated by whites, who make up 88 percent of the population, there are rising numbers of blacks, Latinos, Asians and people of mixed heritage. Latinos now make up 8.1 percent of the overall city population, up from 5.3 percent in 2000.
Also noteworthy is that senior citizens make up less of the population than they did in 2000 – 14.3 percent of the total versus 14.9 percent a decade ago.
It’s not clear why since people are living longer than ever and the percentage of young children has shrunk slightly during the same period.
The city’s labor force, all those 16 and older, has risen by about 1,500 people in the same time, to 34,332.
And, yes, it is taking longer for all those people to get to work.
Travel time to work has gone up from 22 to 23 minutes for the average person.