Who are we and what are we doing here?

In advance of the 2010 U.S. Census, now only a few months away, I thought it might be kind of fun to take a look at what the last census said about us. (If you don’t think it would be kind of fun, stop reading now and see the note below). I’m guessing that where we were at the time of the last census is pretty much where we are today, since Madison Park is not a particularly dynamic community. But I could be wrong; so it will be interesting to make a comparison of these statistics to the new numbers when they come out next year.

Madison Park (including Broadmoor and Washington Park) comprises King County’s Census Tract 63, which in 2000 was populated by 5,006 residents living in 2,822 separate housing units (houses, condos or apartments). We were and clearly still are a pretty homogenous group of people: 2% Asian, 1% Hispanic, 1% African-American, 1% multi-race, and the rest (94%) Caucasian.

And we’re a pretty old bunch, as well, given that the median age for the community is 45. The distribution around the median would make for a pretty nice bell curve if I hadn’t decided to present it as a horizontal bar chart:

Consistent with an older population is the fact that women significantly outnumber men in Madison Park:

This difference becomes more pronounced at the upper end of the age range (the ratio of 65-and-older women to men, for example, is 1.75 to 1.00).

A much higher percentage of us live in rental units than I would have supposed:

Meanwhile, very few Madison Park households include children 18 years of age or younger, unless things have changed dramatically since the last census:

This is consistent with the fact that most of us either live alone or have only one other person in our household:

Although the City has generated some updated census estimates for Seattle as a whole, I have been unable to discover any new estimates for our neighborhood in particular. So until some better information comes along, I think we have to conclude that Madison Park is still the same aging, white beach community that we’ve been for some time. The details may have changed somewhat around the edges, but basically, that’s who we are.

Oh, and with regard to the “What are we doing here?” in the headline above, that’s what this blog is about.

[Note below: For those of you who get bored with statistics, here’s a story from The Seattle Weekly about the nude beach in Madrona (actually Denny Blaine), which you might find more interesting: No Swimsuit Required.]