Demographic Profile of Senior in Wayne County, Michigan

than half that of the general population, while that of multi-race respondents is
considerably less. This fact is due to the large numbers of multi-race responses that
occurred in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, home to large numbers of persons of Arab
ancestry. An analysis of this population shows that it trends toward a younger age
distribution, thus resulting in a higher likelihood for multi-race respondents to be younger
as well.
Table 5. Racial Distribution of Region 1-C’s Total and 60+ Populations, 2000
Number
Total Population
Minority
Percent Share within
1-C
Number
60+ Population
Minority
Percent Share within
1-C
Total Population 1,008,216 171,279
Minority Population 131,720 13.1 11,542 6.7
African-American 72,040 7.1 54.7 7,359 4.3 63.8
Native American 4,221 0.4 3.2 341 0.2 3.0
Asian & PI 22,571 2.2 17.1 1,868 1.1 16.2
Other Race 7,352 0.7 5.6 348 0.2 3.0
Multi-Race 25,536 2.5 19.4 1,626 0.9 14.1
Latino/Hispanic 28,797 2.9 21.9 2,365 1.4 20.5
White, non-Hispanic 857,354 85.0 157,791 92.1
Poverty Trends
Measurement of trends in the elderly poor have been complicated by the way age-related
poverty data were tabulated by the Census Bureau in the 2000 Census. Rather than
breaking out the 55-64 year age cohort into two groups – 55-59 and 60-64 – allowing for
tabulations of the 60 and over population (as done in 1980 and 1990), the Census Bureau
chose to keep it as one. Table 6 shows the distribution of poverty by age groups from the
2000 Census. Region 1-C’s poverty rates were relatively low, compared to the other
Table 6. Poverty Rate by Age Category, 1999
Region Total 55-64 65+ 65-74 75+
1-A 24.9 11.9 17.4 17.0 17.8
1-B 6.3 2.9 6.5 3.5 6.8
1-C 7.5 3.6 6.1 4.4 6.1
2 8.2 4.2 7.5 4.8 7.5
3-A 12.0 3.7 6.3 4.5 5.7
3-B 9.6 5.3 8.2 5.6 7.6
3-C 10.5 6.0 7.1 4.5 6.9
4 11.8 5.9 9.4 6.1 9.1
5 11.3 5.4 7.7 5.2 6.3
6 11.0 3.6 6.4 3.4 6.5
7 12.1 6.1 8.8 5.6 8.9
8 9.5 4.8 7.9 5.1 7.6
9 11.9 9.3 7.8 5.9 6.7
10 7.9 5.4 6.8 3.9 7.0
11 11.8 6.4 9.3 6.0 10.4
14 8.4 3.9 6.7 3.7 7.3
A Demographic Profile of Seniors in PSA 1-C 6