New Census Estimates Show Recession’s Impact on Idaho

Escalating unemployment as the recession strips the Idaho economy of jobs is showing up in how Idahoans live, according to new estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The 2006, 2007 and 2008 estimates released Tuesday for a wide range of social, housing and demographic categories showed significant increases in the number of families where both parents are working or looking for work, the number of family households that include other relatives and the number of grandparents responsible for their grandchildren.

The estimates also showed that 17.8 percent of Idahoans, over 266,000, had no health insurance in 2008, the 12th highest uninsured total in the nation. Another 11.7 percent, over 174,000, had some form of public insurance such as Medicare. Almost 14 percent of those under 18, more than 56,000, were uninsured, the eighth highest percentage among the states, and nearly 90,000 more, 21.7 percent, were covered by some kind of public plan.

Financial and poverty estimates from the annual American Community Survey will be released Sept. 29, but the figures issued Tuesday confirmed past reports of economic deterioration since the recession began in December 2007.

• The median value of owner-occupied homes in Idaho dropped from $185,000 in 2007 to $183,700 in 2008.
• Over 3,000 people traded home ownership for renting between 2007 and 2008.
• The share of homes for sale that are vacant jumped from 1.7 percent in 2006 to 2.9 percent in 2008.
• Enrollment in colleges and community colleges rose more than 15,000 between 2007 and 2008.

The American Community Survey questions 3 million households across the United States and Puerto Rico annually on a wide range of issues to provide updated statistical information between the traditional census headcounts every 10 years.

The new estimates found that between 2006, when the Idaho economy was peaking, and 2008 the number of working parents whose spouses were also working or looking for work increased 23,000 to more than 256,000, or 65 percent of all parents with children under 18.

Over the same two years, the number of relatives – aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, grandparents, grandchildren nieces, nephews – being put up by families rose 11,000 to more than 64,000. That was an increase of over 20 percent at a time when household population in Idaho rose less than 4 percent.

The number of grandparents responsible for raising grandchildren under age 18 was up over 60 percent between 2007 and 2008 to nearly 13,600.

Other social and demographic findings for 2008 included:

• Less than 25 percent of births were to unmarried women, the fifth lowest percentage in the nation.
• Seventy of every 1,000 Idaho women age 15 to 50 gave birth, the second highest rate in the nation behind Utah.
• Only 24 percent of the population over 24 had a college degree, lower than all but 12 other states, and just 7.4 percent had master’s degrees or doctorates, 41st among the states.
• 12.2 percent of Idaho’s adult population served in the military, the seventh highest percentage nationally. 

More information on the American Community Survey can be found at http://www.census.gov/acs/www/.