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Rhode Island news
5.23.2001 00:05
R.I. older, more diverse, but still strong on family
• New census figures depict Ocean State households in which families continue to dominate, but, increasingly, people are living as single parents, unmarried partners or alone.
BY BRIAN C. JONES
and DAVID HERZOG
Journal Staff Writers
PROVIDENCE
-- Don't count the Rhode Island family out, at least not yet.
The family household remains the norm in the Ocean State, according to new figures released today from the 2000 Census.
People related by marriage, birth and adoption make up 65 percent of all homes. And married couples, although declining, are about half of all households.
Still, there are fast-moving and dramatic changes in how households and families are formed in Rhode Island. Just as the state is becoming more racially diverse, so families are becoming more complex.
There are fewer two-parent families than there were decades ago, when Harriet, Ozzie and the boys defined the TV family in simple black and white.
Now, in Rhode Island, as well as the rest of the nation, there are more single mothers -- and dads -- than ever.
Further, the number of people living together as unmarried partners has nearly doubled in a decade. And lots more people are living by themselves.
These are among the elements of a new snapshot of Rhode Island as the state enters the 21st century.
The portrait comes from the latest release of data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which details the number of Rhode Islanders, how old they are, where they live and how they live together.
The new image is still forming, as if statisticians are busy in their darkrooms, peering into developing trays while a photograph, bathed in numbers and data, continues to emerge.
Still, much already is known.
• Housing is becoming harder to find in Rhode Island. The number of households is outpacing the growth in homes.
• During the last 10 years, there appears to have been an exodus from Rhode Island of about 15,000 men and women in their 20s and 30s, just starting out in the work force. Presumably, they left to find jobs elsewhere in the nation.
• One of the fastest increasing groups is that of people 85 and older. There are nearly 21,000, a sprightly jump of 30 percent in just a decade.
• Baby-boomers still are king of the hill. Those born in the years immediately following World War II may be grayer, heavier and perhaps wiser, but they are standing their ground, and they remain a dominant generation.
• On the gender balance sheet, women outnumber men, 52 percent to 48 percent. That's a slightly higher proportion than the rest of the nation.
Rhode Island's population made a 4.5-percent jump between 1990 and the year 2000, increasing to 1,048,319.
So it's logical that the number of households grew, to about 408,000, which is an increase of 8 percent.
What changed dramatically is how people chose to live together.
Families still make up the majority of households, although the percentage dropped in 10 years from more than 68 percent of all households to 65.
Compared to 1950, when 78 percent of all households nationally were those of married couples, this is a big change.
Here are some of the ways in which things are different:
As expected, the number of single-mother families jumped during the last decade, a nearly 35-percent boost, to 31,703.
But Frances Goldscheider, a Brown University sociologist, noted that there also has been an important boost in single-father families in Rhode Island.
Single-father families increased from 4,181 in 1990 to 7,347 last year. While the numbers are far less than households headed by single mothers, the rate of increase was about 75 percent.
Goldscheider noted yesterday that the two-parent family remained the most common method of raising children.
Of all families with children, about 68 percent are those of married couples, a decrease from 76 percent a decade ago, according to the census.
There were other changes in households in the past 10 years.
There's been a big jump in what the Census Bureau calls "non-family" households. They number about 143,000, making up 35 percent of all households.
Of these, about 116,678 are people who live alone, a group that increased nearly 18 percent. There are two possible reasons for the increase: more elderly people living alone after their spouses die; and younger adults living by themselves as they start careers.
The census also counted 23,180 "unmarried partners" in Rhode Island, a jump of more than 78 percent in 10 years. The census has not yet said how many of these are gay couples, and how many are men and women.
A national group, the Alternatives to Marriage Project, said yesterday that the Rhode Island numbers outpaced those of the nation, where the increase in unmarried partners was 71 percent.
"Cohabitation isn't limited to young people in New York and California anymore," said Marshall Miller, a co-founder of the group. "We're parents, baby-boomers, senior citizens and the couple next door in every town in America."
John P. O'Brien, chief of the Statewide Planning Program, said that some of the changes in family relationships is putting increased pressure on housing.
For example, the growth in households was 8 percent, but the number of housing units increased by just 6 percent.
In all but a few cities and towns, the rental vacancy rate dropped, making it more difficult for people to find housing.
Chris Barnett, a spokesman for Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation, which provides low-income loans for first-time home buyers, said this also has made housing harder to afford.
"Declining vacancy rates and decades of disinvestment in the state's core cities are forcing many people to live in buildings that are unsafe as they scramble for the crumbs of the housing market," Barnett said.
O'Brien, of Statewide Planning, said the census figures also seem to confirm speculation that many young workers left Rhode Island in the 1990s, during a slow economic recovery.
In 1990, according to Journal calculations, there were 155,942 people between the ages of 15 and 24. A decade later, the number of people in that same group, but who were now aged 25 to 34, was only 140,326. That's a loss of more than 15,000.
The census figures showed some ethnic changes as well.
Statewide, Mexicans were the fastest growing Hispanic group. During the 1990s, their numbers swelled 141 percent to nearly 6,000. Around half of them lived in Providence and Central Falls in 2000.
Other Hispanics, a group that includes the Dominicans who have been the dominant Hispanic group in Rhode Island, nearly doubled to 58,000 during the 1990s. Puerto Ricans also nearly doubled to more than 25,000.
Rhode Island's population grew older, with the median age 36.7 years in 2000, compared to 33.9 10 years ago. (The median is halfway between the top and bottom of a list of numbers.)
With the exception of Providence and Central Falls, which have seen a large influx of Hispanic immigrants, the median age rose by a few years in every city and town.
R.I. older, more diverse, but still strong on family
• New census figures depict Ocean State households in which families continue to dominate, but, increasingly, people are living as single parents, unmarried partners or alone.
BY BRIAN C. JONES
and DAVID HERZOG
Journal Staff Writers
The family household remains the norm in the Ocean State, according to new figures released today from the 2000 Census.
People related by marriage, birth and adoption make up 65 percent of all homes. And married couples, although declining, are about half of all households.
Still, there are fast-moving and dramatic changes in how households and families are formed in Rhode Island. Just as the state is becoming more racially diverse, so families are becoming more complex.
There are fewer two-parent families than there were decades ago, when Harriet, Ozzie and the boys defined the TV family in simple black and white.
Now, in Rhode Island, as well as the rest of the nation, there are more single mothers -- and dads -- than ever.
Further, the number of people living together as unmarried partners has nearly doubled in a decade. And lots more people are living by themselves.
These are among the elements of a new snapshot of Rhode Island as the state enters the 21st century.
The portrait comes from the latest release of data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which details the number of Rhode Islanders, how old they are, where they live and how they live together.
The new image is still forming, as if statisticians are busy in their darkrooms, peering into developing trays while a photograph, bathed in numbers and data, continues to emerge.
Still, much already is known.
• Housing is becoming harder to find in Rhode Island. The number of households is outpacing the growth in homes.
• During the last 10 years, there appears to have been an exodus from Rhode Island of about 15,000 men and women in their 20s and 30s, just starting out in the work force. Presumably, they left to find jobs elsewhere in the nation.
• One of the fastest increasing groups is that of people 85 and older. There are nearly 21,000, a sprightly jump of 30 percent in just a decade.
• Baby-boomers still are king of the hill. Those born in the years immediately following World War II may be grayer, heavier and perhaps wiser, but they are standing their ground, and they remain a dominant generation.
• On the gender balance sheet, women outnumber men, 52 percent to 48 percent. That's a slightly higher proportion than the rest of the nation.
Rhode Island's population made a 4.5-percent jump between 1990 and the year 2000, increasing to 1,048,319.
So it's logical that the number of households grew, to about 408,000, which is an increase of 8 percent.
What changed dramatically is how people chose to live together.
Families still make up the majority of households, although the percentage dropped in 10 years from more than 68 percent of all households to 65.
Compared to 1950, when 78 percent of all households nationally were those of married couples, this is a big change.
Here are some of the ways in which things are different:
As expected, the number of single-mother families jumped during the last decade, a nearly 35-percent boost, to 31,703.
But Frances Goldscheider, a Brown University sociologist, noted that there also has been an important boost in single-father families in Rhode Island.
Single-father families increased from 4,181 in 1990 to 7,347 last year. While the numbers are far less than households headed by single mothers, the rate of increase was about 75 percent.
Goldscheider noted yesterday that the two-parent family remained the most common method of raising children.
Of all families with children, about 68 percent are those of married couples, a decrease from 76 percent a decade ago, according to the census.
There were other changes in households in the past 10 years.
There's been a big jump in what the Census Bureau calls "non-family" households. They number about 143,000, making up 35 percent of all households.
Of these, about 116,678 are people who live alone, a group that increased nearly 18 percent. There are two possible reasons for the increase: more elderly people living alone after their spouses die; and younger adults living by themselves as they start careers.
The census also counted 23,180 "unmarried partners" in Rhode Island, a jump of more than 78 percent in 10 years. The census has not yet said how many of these are gay couples, and how many are men and women.
A national group, the Alternatives to Marriage Project, said yesterday that the Rhode Island numbers outpaced those of the nation, where the increase in unmarried partners was 71 percent.
"Cohabitation isn't limited to young people in New York and California anymore," said Marshall Miller, a co-founder of the group. "We're parents, baby-boomers, senior citizens and the couple next door in every town in America."
John P. O'Brien, chief of the Statewide Planning Program, said that some of the changes in family relationships is putting increased pressure on housing.
For example, the growth in households was 8 percent, but the number of housing units increased by just 6 percent.
In all but a few cities and towns, the rental vacancy rate dropped, making it more difficult for people to find housing.
Chris Barnett, a spokesman for Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation, which provides low-income loans for first-time home buyers, said this also has made housing harder to afford.
"Declining vacancy rates and decades of disinvestment in the state's core cities are forcing many people to live in buildings that are unsafe as they scramble for the crumbs of the housing market," Barnett said.
O'Brien, of Statewide Planning, said the census figures also seem to confirm speculation that many young workers left Rhode Island in the 1990s, during a slow economic recovery.
In 1990, according to Journal calculations, there were 155,942 people between the ages of 15 and 24. A decade later, the number of people in that same group, but who were now aged 25 to 34, was only 140,326. That's a loss of more than 15,000.
The census figures showed some ethnic changes as well.
Statewide, Mexicans were the fastest growing Hispanic group. During the 1990s, their numbers swelled 141 percent to nearly 6,000. Around half of them lived in Providence and Central Falls in 2000.
Other Hispanics, a group that includes the Dominicans who have been the dominant Hispanic group in Rhode Island, nearly doubled to 58,000 during the 1990s. Puerto Ricans also nearly doubled to more than 25,000.
Rhode Island's population grew older, with the median age 36.7 years in 2000, compared to 33.9 10 years ago. (The median is halfway between the top and bottom of a list of numbers.)
With the exception of Providence and Central Falls, which have seen a large influx of Hispanic immigrants, the median age rose by a few years in every city and town.
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