San Diego Community College District

College Service Areas – Population and Housing Characteristics:

Changes From 1990 Census to 2000 Census

Introduction:

The service areas for the three community colleges in the San Diego Community College District are defined by their surrounding Zip Codes and reflect the general community served by the community college. An analysis of population and housing characteristics was conducted comparing the changes from the 1990 Census to the 2000 Census.

In addition to population and housing characteristics, the census data provides employment, education, and economic information. However, because the 2000 Census was recently released, this information will be reported at a later date. Therefore, only comparisons on population and housing characteristics between the 1990 and 2000 census will be reported here. The specific population and housing data are described below:

Method:

Population by Age and Gender (Table 1): Age is broken down into two categories, under 18 and 18 and over. The 18 and over category reflects the adult population. In addition, age is also broken down by gender.

Median Age by Gender (Table 2): The median age is defined as the age at which 50 percent of the population in the service area is either older or younger. In addition, the median age is broken down by gender.

Ethnic Distribution (Table 3): This section describes the ethnic breakdown for the each college service area.

Population by Household Type (Table 4): Households include all people who occupy a housing unit, regardless of whether or not they are related to each other. In contrast, persons not living in households are classified as living in group quarters. There are two type of groups quarters: institutionalized – people under supervised care or custody and non-institutionalized, such as military barracks and college dormitories.

Household by Type (Table 5): This section describes the number of married couples (with or without children), single parents (male and female), people living alone, and other non-family households.

Significant Findings:

Population by Age and Gender (Table 1):

v The proportions in all categories and across all service areas remains consistent from 1990 to 2000.

v About ¾ of the population in all three service areas are adults (18 and over).

v The Mesa College Service Area has the highest proportion of adults for both 1990 (81.5%) and 2000 (81.3%) as compared to City (74.5% - 1990; 73.3% - 2000) and Miramar (77.7% - 1990; 78.2% - 2000).

v The rate of female adults to male adults is higher for both the City College and Mesa College service areas.

Median Age by Gender (Table 2):

v From 1990 to 2000, the median age remains constant for the City College service area and slightly increases for both the Mesa College and Miramar College service areas.

v The Mesa College service area has the highest median age for both the 1990 (33.4) and 2000 (35.1) census.

v The median age for females is slightly higher than the median age for males across all service areas for both 1990 and 2000.

Ethnic Distribution (Table 3):

v The City College service area is the most diverse for both the 1990 and 2000 census.

v The Mesa College service area has the highest proportion of Whites for both the 1990 (78.7%) and 2000 (70.%) census reporting periods.

v Latinos and Asians are the two fastest growing populations across all college service areas:

o From 1990 to 2000, the Latino population increased by 42.3% (City College), 31.2% (Mesa College) and 53.8% (Miramar College).

o From 1990 to 2000, the Asian population increased by 19.6% (City College), 29.3% (Mesa College) and 94.8% (Miramar College).

Population by Household Type (Table 4):

v A majority (97%) of the population in all college service areas are categorized as living in households - This rate hasn’t change from 1990 to 2000.

Household by Type (Table 5):

v Over half of the households in the Miramar College service area consist of married couples (with or without children) or single parents – This rate remains the same from 1990 to 2000.

v Less than half of the households in the City College (40% in 1990) and Mesa College (46% in 1990) service areas consist of married couples (with or without children) or single parents – These rates decrease in 2000 (38.8% for City College) and (42.7% for Mesa College).

v The rate of female single parents is higher than male single parents, particularly in the City College service area (14.3% to 4.7%).