PRAISE INDY.COM EXCLUSIVE: More women than men. More single female headed families than married families and persons living alone larger still. Single male headed families growing. And surprisingly, an increase in Black homeownership, especially in the City of Indianapolis.
Those are some of the first findings from the first release of detailed data on Indianapolis’ quarter million strong African-American community from the 2010 Census.
Data on age, gender, household and family relationships; home ownership and renting on African-Americans and other racial groups was released Thursday by the Census Bureau.
According to the 2010 Census, women and girls comprise 54.1% of the city’s Black community and 53.3% of the Black metro population. Men and boys make up 45.9% of the city and 46.7% of the metro’s Black population.
Ten years ago, men/boys were 46.7% of the city and 47.2% of the metro Black population and women/girls were 53.3% of the city and 52.8% of the metro Black community.
Median age for African-Americans in Indianapolis/Marion County went from 29.7 in 2000 to 31.0 in 2010. Black median age data for the ten county Indianapolis-Carmel metro won’t be released till September.
The largest age group in the Indianapolis African-American community is adults 25 to 34, some 38,075 or 14.5% of the total population. The next largest age group is adults 35 to 44; 36,904 or 14.0%. Youth aged 10 to 17 are next; 36,428 or 13.8%. That’s followed by adults 45 to 54; 36,379 or 13.8%; adults 18 to 24; 26,976 or 10.6%; adults 55 to 64; 23,166 or 8.8%.
The smallest age group in the African-American community continues to be senior citizens over 65. That population is just 20,614, or some 7.8% of the total Black community.
In percentage terms, the fastest growing age groups in the Black community are adults 55-64, up 66.6% and adults 45-54 up 53.0%
The smallest growth in percentage terms were adults 35-44 only up 7.1% and kids age 5 to 9 up just 7.5%.
The number of African-American households in the Indianapolis metro rose 25.7% to a record number 101,200 according to the 2010 Census. But the portrait of Black households is a far cry from the Black family epitomized by the fictional Huxtables of Cosby Show fame or the Obama’s.
The largest household group in the Indianapolis African-American community are non-family households. Households where an individual lives alone or lives in a non-traditional household, like roommates or opposite-sex or same-sex couples. Some 37.3% of Black households in Indianapolis are non-family households.
There are more households where people live alone, than single female headed households in Indy’s Black community. Persons living alone comprise 32.0% of all Black households; non-traditional households make up 5.3%.
Single female headed families make up the second largest group of Black households, with 31.1% of all Black households falling into that category.
The fastest growing household group, up 37.0% since 2000 are families headed by a single Black male. They make up 5.9% of all Black households.
Households with a traditional husband and wife comprise only 25.7% of households in Indianapolis’ African-American community.
Black families with children make up 35.2% of all African-American households in Indianapolis. And some 56.6% of those households are headed by single females.
In a surprise, despite the mortgage crisis and the Great Recession, the actual number of African-American homeowners increased between 2000 and 2010.
In Indianapolis/Marion County which saw a 0.9% drop in overall homeownership, Black homeownership actually increased by 1,970 or 5.7%. In the Indianapolis Metro area, Black homeownership rose 5,241 an increase of 14.6%.
Despite the increase, the overall percentage of Black households owning their homes declined during the decade. In 2000, 44.5% of Black households owned their homes. In 2010 that percentage fell to 40.6%. In 2000, 44.1% of city/county’s Black households were owners; in 2010 just 38.9% were.
