2010 Census Demographic Profiles Released

By Valorie H. Rice

On May 12th demographic profiles from the 2010 Census were released for Arizona counties, cities and towns. These profiles yield information on changes in the age of the population, household relationships, and housing vacancy for these smaller geographies. The next important information to come out of the 2010 Census will provide data separated out by age, race, and sex, and will be released from June through August.

 Age

The median age in Arizona is 35.9, which is older than we were in 2000 by about a year.  While most counties in the state grew older, some significantly so, Pinal grew younger and Yuma stayed essentially the same as compared to the last census.  Pinal saw the largest total population gain of all the counties over the decade and was the only one to see an increase in the under 18 population leaving it with a median age of 35.3 (it was 37.1 in 2000).  This trend moved the county from 11th to 8th when ranked by median age.  La Paz retained its ranking as the oldest county with a median age of 53.9 and it was also the county that increased the most in age, adding a little over 7 years to its median age as compared to 2000.  Coconino replaced Apache as the youngest at 31.  In 2000, the range in median age was from 27 to 46.8.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Households

There are 2,380,990 households in Arizona, 26.4 percent of which include someone who is 65 or older and 33.6 percent that contain someone younger than 18.  The average household size in Arizona is 2.63 persons, which is just slightly smaller than the 2.64 persons seen in 2000.  Apache County has the largest households, with an average household size of 3.1.  La Paz averages 2.19 persons per household and in line with being the oldest county; it has the most households with a member over 65.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Housing

As of April 2010, there were 2,844,526 housing units in Arizona, 83.7 percent of which were occupied. The number of households described earlier corresponds to the number of “occupied housing units”.  The state as a whole has a 16.3 percent vacancy rate which, as expected, is larger than 2000 (13.1).  Of the 463,536 vacant housing units in Arizona, 184,327 of them are vacation or seasonal homes.   Gila, La Paz, Navajo and Yuma counties have the largest percentage of seasonal homes.   Most homes are occupied by the owners and this stands through all counties, though Greenlee is an exception in that housing there is evenly split between owners and renters.