The median age in New Hanover County is 37.2.
Nearly 8 percent of the county’s speaking-age population prefers a language other than English at home.
And about 12.5 percent of the county’s employed population works for the government.
They’re among an inundation of statistical updates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau following a five-year look at individual localities nationwide, with the point to provide them “the information they need to make informed decisions,” said Tom Mesenbourg, the bureau’s acting director.
Numerous data-sets help to detail the current picture of New Hanover County, which has 200,336 residents in all, according to the bureau’s update. The present-day number might be slightly different as the counts fell between 2007-2011.
Of the population here, there are 159,043 whites, 30,002 blacks, 10,023 Hispanics or Latinos, 2,633 Asians, 793 American Indians or native Alaskans, 100 native Hawaiians or other Pacific islanders, and 4,730 of “some other race.” More than 3,000 claim two or more races.
The bureau says 52 percent of New Hanover County’s people are female, and the largest individual chunk of the overall headcount–at 14.3 percent–are adults between the ages of 25 and 34.
The data is gathered through the American Community Survey (ACS), which primarily serves to help the federal government determine how to disburse $400 billion each year for local infrastructure and services.
For instance, the survey asks the recipient his or her sex. “At the state and county levels, data about sex are used to allocate funds for food, health care services, and classes in meal planning to low-income women with children,” the bureau explained.
The bureau sends the ACS to random households “all year, every year.”
According to the latest release of results, the over-65 population in New Hanover County accounts for 13.6 percent of the whole–57 percent of that crowd being female.
A closer look at the senior-aged population-counts shows the group’s median age is 69. More than 21 percent are widowed, nearly 13 percent are divorced and 3.6 percent never married.
Twenty-five percent of the 60-and-older generation here served in the military. About the same percentage are currently employed.
For the general, civilian working population over the age of 16, private companies employ nearly 69 percent, about 68,183 workers. In the breakdown, more than 16 percent of the private-company workers are in the field of “arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accommodation and food services.”
Roughly the same number of workers are in the retail trade.
Residents in the educational, healthcare and social assistance fields amounted to 14.7 percent of the privately employed workforce; in construction, 7.4 percent; in manufacturing, 9 percent; in the “finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing” field, 7 percent.
Just less than 6 percent of the overall civilian workforce is persons self-employed or in their own incorporated business (the most popular field being in professional services related to science, management, administration and waste management).
New Hanover County’s median income in the past 12 months: $48,893, generally.
Families earn $66,039 (with no children under age 18, $68,300; with them, $61,512).
Married couples’ median income is $79,709.
The median income for a householder between the ages of 25 and 44 is $51,192. For a householder aged 45-64, it’s $61,119.
The data-sets go on and on with granular details from respondents in the survey, which the bureau insists is not to gather intelligence on individual persons but to have a sharp picture of localities’ realities for funding purposes.
The ACS’s question to recipients about their drive-time to work figures into road-funding allocations, the bureau says. A question about plumbing in residences pertains to sewage treatment and planning for infrastructure.
All personal information is supposed to be heavily shielded, with the bureau requiring each of its employees, when hired, to sign a lifelong secrecy oath. Violations can fetch fines of up to $250,000, up to five years in prison, or both.
Mesenbourg, the bureau’s acting director, said around 2 million survey responses are gathered yearly.
“If you participated in the American Community Survey, I thank you,” he said in a statement Thursday, adding the data goes beyond just federal interest. “Your response allows us to provide the detailed information that your community uses to decide where to build new hospitals or new schools or to assess the socioeconomic condition of residents.
“Businesses also rely on ACS statistics to identify market opportunities, assess the characteristics of the workforce and the housing stock, and make investment decisions.”
The bureau has plugged the data into its “QuickFacts” product, which provides basic rundowns of individual areas’ headcounts and housing info.
Contact Ben Brown at [email protected] or (910) 772-6335. On Twitter: @benbrownmedia
