Read up on the census and you learn that in 1790, according to the Census Bureau’s website, Congress assigned “marshals of the U.S. judicial districts” to carry out a census and ask questions, including name, race, gender, relationship to head of household, and “… number of slaves, if any.”
Flash forward to 2020 with the next census about to get underway and you have to conclude the national count bears more of a resemblance to the one Thomas Jefferson ran than the kind of count 21st century technology can perform.
Altering the constitution is no minor feat and it shouldn’t be. But a convincing argument can be made that the time has come to abandon the notion of a static, every-10-year head-count in favor of a rolling count that constantly updates population statistics.
To their credit, federal census representatives and their state and municipal counterparts are bound and determined to get everyone counted and for good reason. The census has direct bearing on representation by elected officials and federal funding distribution.
In fact, the best way to quickly understand how our government works is to understand the census and the huge, long-lasting impact it has on assuring all Americans have a voice in the halls of power.
Important as it is, the count is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Census Bureau’s work. Using a fascinating tool called the American Community Survey (ACS), census workers harness the numbers they gather, ask more questions, and come up with incredibly detailed portraits of communities like Lynn.
Analyze census information from 2010 — the last national census — and ACS data gathered in 2016 and 2018 and you get a fascinating portrait of the city.
Lynn has some of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the region with more than 90,000 residents with 33,000 households, 40 percent of which are racial or ethnic “minorities.” Its peak population stood at 102,300 in 1930, but population estimates suggest growth in Lynn through 2030 could range between 94,000 to 99,000.
That estimate is already being debunked by city officials who think the city population is not 94,000 but more like 110,000.
Lynn’s relatively young population is reflected in an average age of 34.2 years for city residents. According to the 2016 Census estimate, Hispanic or Latino residents represented 35,000 or 38 percent of Lynn’s population compared to 29,000 or 32 percent in 2010. African Americans totaled 16,200 in 2016 compared to 11,540 in 2010.
Immigrants make up more than 30 percent of Lynn’s population — double the statewide foreign-born population rate. Census data shows 46.4 percent of foreign-born city residents entered the country before 2000. Just over two-thirds of the city’s 70,800 residents who are 16 or older work.
By comparison, 62 percent of Lynn residents 16 or older were in the labor force in 2000. Women made up slightly more than half of the workforce in 2016 and slightly below half in 2000. Service occupations employed 29 percent of Lynn’s workforce in 2016 — a percentage far higher than the 19.9 percent of the 2000 workforce employed in service occupations.
According to 2016 Census statistics, 12.7 percent of Lynn’s households — just over 4,000 — earn annually between $35,000 and $50,000 a year. Just over 79 percent of the 59,000 Lynn residents who are 25 years or older hold at least a high school degree or additional educational credentials. But 13.3 percent have less than a ninth grade education and another 7.7 percent, according to 2016 data, attended high school but did not earn a diploma.
The 2016 census estimated 63 percent of the 48,000 city residents older than 16 who work drove alone to their jobs. Just over 13 percent used public transportation. Almost 6 percent worked at home. Almost half of the city’s workers log commute times between 10 minutes and an hour.
Of the 59,000 people 25 years or older living in the city between 2012 and 2016, 20.7 percent had less than a high school education. The number of single-parent families in Lynn is more than double the percentages for the Boston Metro area.
Lynn’s housing is old with census data noting 62 percent of residences were built before 1940 and less than 5 percent built after 1990. Single-family homes totaled 10,651 in 1991 compared to 11,603 in 2015.
All these facts paint a detailed picture of Lynn’s population and the most effective way to gather them has to be on a rolling basis with modern technology. Let’s start the debate over ditching a 10-year count and make the census really count.