The focus of this post is on the percent of children under the age of 18 in the seven-county region. In 2012, according to the American Community Survey, the average percent of children in the state of Michigan was 23.6 percent. This post shows that the percent of children across the region is higher than the elderly population in the region. Three of the seven counties in Southeastern Michigan had a lower percentage of children than the state average.
Although children under the age of 18 made up 23.6 percent of the state’s population, there were only four counties in the region at or above this threshold. St. Clair was right at the state average, while three counties were above and three below the state average. The three counties with a higher percentage of children were Livingston (25.3%), Wayne (25.3%), and Monroe (24.0%). Washtenaw County had the lowest percent of children under the age 18 (20.7%).
In last week’s post on the elderly population, St. Clair (14.8%) and Macomb (14.4%) counties had the highest population of residents age 65 and above. Washtenaw County had the lowest elderly population at 10.6 percent.
The above map provides a closer look at how the child population is distributed across the region. Livingston County only has one community that has a lower percentage of children than the state average, however, there are few areas with 800 children or more (it should be noted Livingston County has a much lower population than Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties). As the yellow dots show, there is a high concentration of children in the City of Detroit and the communities surrounding it, such as Warren, Southfield and Dearborn.
In Washtenaw County, the child population is concentrated in the Ann Arbor area. In Macomb County, which had the second lowest percentage of children in the region, the southern part of the county had a high number of children despite having a lower than state average percentage of children.
The above map provides a look at the child population in the City of Detroit. When comparing this map to the Detroit map in the previous post (link) about the elderly population, it can be seen there are several Census tracts where the elderly population is above the state average but the child population is below. Many of these Census tracts are northwest of Highland Park, around Palmer Park, and in the area between Highland Park and Belle Isle.