Census survey shows societal change

COEUR d’ALENE — Our area is changing, and the U.S. Census Bureau is putting numbers to some of the more profound shifts.

The just-released American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates provides a rolling sample of more than 40 different categories of economic, social, and housing life across America’s landscape. The survey covers the years from 2013-2017.

The data further validates signs of the increasing age of North Idaho’s population. In 2013, 35.5 years was the median age of Coeur d’Alene metro area residents. Sandpoint’s residents had a median age of 38.6 years.

By 2017, those numbers had jumped to 36.4 years in Coeur d’Alene and 39.2 years in Sandpoint.

The older population is disproportionately tilted toward women, as 2017 data indicates female citizens make up 58.3 percent of the 7,927 Coeur d’Alene metro area’s 65 and older residents. The overall population has an almost equal gender balance, with 49.7 percent male and 50.3 percent female. The median age of the 65 and older population here is 73.2 years of age, twice the 36.4 median age of the metro area.

Veterans made up 22.5 percent of the 65 and older population in 2017, more than twice the overall rate of 9.1 percent in the overall Coeur d’Alene metro area.

Senior households constitute more than one-quarter of the metro area’s 20,090 households, according to the data. However, the average income of 65 years and older households was much lower than the average for the metro area. Senior households had average earnings of $40,098 per year, almost one-third lower than the $59,084 average household income for the metro area. Numbers are in 2017 inflation-adjusted dollars.

The senior population stayed above the poverty level far better than the overall population, though. The 2017 data indicates that 6.8 percent of 65 and older residents are at or below the poverty level, while 15.5 percent of the overall metro area population lives in poverty. Thirty-one of Idaho’s 44 counties saw a decrease in the number of residents living below the federal poverty level from the previous survey.

Seventy-four percent of seniors own their homes, compared to 55.9 percent of the overall population. The median price of rent statewide jumped $28 per month over the time period, from $764 to $792, adjusted for inflation. Idaho’s highest median gross rent was in Blaine County, $984.

Median household income increased $1,811 over the five-year period to $50,985. Ada County boasts the highest median household income at $60,151.

According to the data, 59 percent of Idaho’s 16 and older population are employed, with 37.5 percent out of the labor force. Only 6.1 percent of those workers are self-employed, with 16.6 percent working for governments and 77.3 percent working for private employers.

Samuel Wolkenhauer, regional economist with the Idaho Department of Labor, said area incomes rose slightly in the 2013-2017 period.

“The Census estimate for median household income in 2017 was $57,219, up from $54,919 in 2013,” Wolkenhauer told The Press. “That’s a 4.2 percent increase, but that does not include inflation, so in real terms there really have not been appreciable income gains. This is certainly a trend that we want to see reversed in future years.”

Wolkenhauer added that the latest estimates put Kootenai County’s employed population in 2017 at 70,914, up from 62,483 in 2013.

“With all those jobs added, the share of our adult population employed rose from 55 percent to 56.4 percent, which is very encouraging given how many retirees we have moving into the area,” he said.

In 2017, 5.2 percent of the Coeur d’Alene metro area population had just moved from out of state, compared to 5.5 percent in 2013. In 2017, 8.1 percent of the Sandpoint area population had just moved from out of state, up from 6.3 percent in 2013.

The five-year sample also shows a slight change in the racial makeup of the area. From 2013 to 2017 the percentage of Coeur d’Alene area residents who identified as non-Hispanic whites dipped from 90 percent in 2013 to 88.9 percent in 2017. In Sandpoint, those numbers declined from 92.2 percent in 2013 to 91.7 percent in 2017.

In Sandpoint, the Hispanic population increased from 4.9 percent in 2013 to 5.8 percent in 2017. The Hispanic population in Coeur d’Alene declined slightly, however, going from 5.5 percent in 2013 to 5.3 percent in 2017.

Statewide, 8 percent of Idaho residents speak Spanish at home. Overall, 10.6 percent of Idaho residents age 5 and older speak a language other than English at home. Of these, almost two-thirds also speak English, said the data.