People & Household Characteristics

What’s the difference between households and families? The Census definition of family is people living together who are ‘’related… by birth, marriage, or adoption.’’ In contrast, the definition of household is ‘’all the persons who occupy a housing unit.’’

Compare with caution. The American Community Survey (ACS) questions on Racial and ethnic diversity were revised to be consistent with 2010 Census questions. For this reason, differences between Census 2000 and more recent American Community Survey data may be a result of demographic changes and/or differences in question wording. The Census Bureau advises to compare Racial and ethnic diversity data between these surveys with caution.

Which number do you need? There are many ways to look at household characteristics. We use “households” rather than “families” because of the Census’ narrow and changing definition of “family.” To get a more complete perspective, households by type is provided, as well as types of households in which children and the elderly live. Note, due to major revisions of survey questions pertaining to “Household Type,” “Family Type,” and “Subfamilies,” the Census Bureau advises against comparing between Census 2000 and more recent American Community Survey data for these indicators. Therefore, data for the Households by type table uses comparable data from Census 2020. The Children in households table will be updated next with the future release of supplemental Census 2020 data.

Housing & Housing Costs

What’s the difference between contract rent and gross rent? Contract rent is the monthly rent agreed to (for example, the “rent” amount one finds advertised in the Classifieds), while gross rent is the contract rent plus the estimated monthly costs of utilities (electricity, gas, water, sewer and fuels) whether they are paid for by the owner or the renter. Using gross rent helps to understand the total housing costs and eliminates the effect of the different payment arrangements such as water or electricity included in rent.

Definitions and source links

How much house can a person afford? Census data can be used to determine how many households might be struggling to meet the costs associated with housing. There is no “magic number” to determine whether housing is affordable or not. HUD defines housing as “affordable” if the occupant is spending no more than 30 percent of their gross income on housing costs, including utilities. This is the number used by the federal government for many of their housing programs.

Income & Poverty

People can have more than one source of income. The indicators we’ve compiled look at the percent of households that reported each type of income. We hope that this approach will paint a useful picture of how households in the neighborhood get their income.

What these numbers cannot tell you is whether each of these categories of reported income is the primary source or whether, for example, self-employment is a second job. Therefore, these data points cannot be combined.

The preferred measure for income is median, rather than average, because medians are not affected by extreme values. Because the Census doesn’t release the individual data points necessary to calculate medians, we do not present medians for specific neighborhoods. But, you can go to the Census web site to get median incomes for specific census tracts and some cities and towns.

Definitions and source links

These income ranges are not inflation adjusted. The Census reports the 2000 income distribution shown below as it was, in 2000 dollars. No inflation adjustment has been applied to this distribution. For example, people making $10,000 - $14,999 in 2000 would be making about $17,723 - $26,583 in 2023 dollars, after adjusting for inflation. Because of this, any comparison suggesting upward movement in income distributions from 2000 to 2023 may be partly or entirely due to inflation since 2000.

Most experts agree that the Census’ definition of poverty is flawed. The Census still uses the federal definition for poverty that was first created in 1964. Although it has been adjusted for inflation, it had some flaws back then, and it has even more flaws now.

The original calculations were based on studies from the early 1960s that indicated that family food costs were about one-third of a family’s budget. At that time, no similar studies on a family’s housing costs existed. So, the federal government simply estimated the cost of a nutritionally adequate diet in 1964 and multiplied that by three to come up with a minimum family budget. But housing costs have risen much faster than food costs since 1964.

Today food costs are estimated to be only 20 to 25 percent of a family’s budget, so multiplying food costs by three would not be enough to pay for basic needs today - yet that is the assumption behind the current poverty estimates. The current calculations don’t count non-cash government aid, such as Medicaid or food stamps, as income, and don’t account for medical out of pocket costs, a particularly large expense for seniors. And they aren’t adjusted for differences in costs of living in different parts of the country. Given these flaws, some researchers around the country have tried to develop alternative measures that would really get at who has an adequate income and who doesn’t.

In the meantime, the poverty data below is probably still the best place to start when describing need in your community.

Transportation

Educational Attainment

Language

English as a second language and ability to speak English. The Census asks whether a language other than English is spoken at home. People who do speak a language other than English at home are then asked to report how well they speak English.

We’ve combined the categories of people who speak only English at home with those who speak another language at home but report that they speak English “well.” This way we can focus on data about those individuals for whom speaking English is a barrier.

Employment

Workers living in the neighborhood. The Census Bureau collects data on the monthly earnings of workers living in a neighborhood, along with the industry sector they work in.

These earnings ranges are not inflation adjusted. The Census reports the 2004 earnings distribution shown below as it was, in 2004 dollars. No inflation adjustment has been applied to this distribution. For example, people making $1,251 - $3,333 in 2004 would be making $1,767 - $4,708 in 2022 dollars, after adjusting for inflation. Because of this, any comparison suggesting upward movement in earnings distribution from 2004 to 2022 may be partly or entirely due to inflation since 2004.