Free Custom «Comparing Urban Demographics» Essay Paper

Demographics is a statistics characterizing human populations or segments of human populations broken down by age, sex or income etc. Urban demographics deals with things like the economic growth of the country, population growth of the country and it includes many other things. If we compare the future demographic composition of countries like Chicago, IL ,Des Moines, IA and Minneapolis, MN ,the comparison is probably be based on age, race/ethnicity, household composition, educational levels ,forces that are driving these trends, such as, immigration and affordability of housing ,the implications for the ability of cities to provide life services like fire, police, water, sewage etc.., and other services like education, transportation, social services for the nation's increasing and increasingly diverse urban population.

Chicago grew at a rate that ranked among the fastest growing in the world. If we look at the urban demographics of Chicago, we observe that the country has a population of 2,896,016, out of which 1,061,928 are households, and 632,909 families reside within Chicago. Half of the population living in state of Illinois lives in the Chicago metropolitan area. The country has a population density of 12,750.3 people per square mile, about 1,152,868 housing units at an average density of 5,075.8 per square mile, of which 1,061,928 are households, 28.9% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.1%married couples living together, 18.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.4% were non-families. If we see the economic development of the people, the median income for a household in the city was $38,625 for families it was $46,748, median income of $35,907, for males versus $30,536 for females. But about 19.6% of the population and 16.6% of the families are under the poverty line.

 

Type of service

Type of assignment

Title of your paper *

Academic level

Pages

Timeframe

Spacing

Currency

  Order now

The country has a massive Irish American population, with many residing on its South Side. Many of the city’s politicians have come from this population, including Mayor Richard M. Daley. Historically, and to this day, there has been particularly substantial Irish American presence in Chicago's Fire and Police Departments. The Irish have been a fundamental part of the city for over 150 years. They laid the foundations for many of the city's Roman Catholic churches, schools and hospitals. To this day, the Irish are still very much active in the city's politics. One can notice the sheer size of the community on daily basis but especially on St. Patrick's Day. Population estimates in 2008 put that of the people in Chicago, the number of people in the city proper are 2,853,114, while suburban populations continue to grow, and it is estimated to be about 9,785,747 for the combined city and suburban areas.

Moines is home to over 500,000 residents. For a reason to move here, start with the reasons for the people to stay here is all because of unequalled schools, great public services, friendly communities, and four glorious season, meant perfectly for a quality living. If we observe the urban demographics of Moines, we see that the country has a population of 551,819. Estimated by single classification race we find that whites are in about 88.2% of population,hispanic ethnicity 6.2%,,black 3.7%,asia-pacific islanders 2.6%,American indian,or Alaska native 0.2%. The percapita income of the country is $28,377,average house hold income $68,195,median house hold income is found to be $58,853.and the land area is about 2912 square miles. Approximately 700,000 people ,estimated about 24 percent of the state’spopulation live within a one-hour drive of Des Moines. CNBC ranks Moines fourth among the 50 states in their annual“Top States for Business” survey. Iowa was ranked ninth in the same survey in 2008, moving upfive spots in just one year.

West Des Moines was ranked eighth in BusinessWeek’s “Best Affordable Suburbs” in the U.S., citing its low unemployment rate 3%, and violent crime index estimated was 21. West Des Moines’ has a highly-educated population and 16-minute average commutes. Des Moines is third among “America’s Most Livable Cities”, using five key quality of life metrics including income growth 4.2%, cost of living index 90.2, culture index 68, crime per 100,000 and 3,854 and unemployment 5.0. Greater Des Moines was included among the 20 strongest performing metro areas in its tracking of the recession and recovery in America’s cities. The report said Des Moines experienced very modest job losses and has performed relatively well on most other economic indicators. Des Moines’s metro also had the smallest change in unemployment between March of 2008 and March of 2009.

Minneapolisis the most populous urban city in the state of Minnesota and is composed of 186 cities and townships. The demographics of Minneapolis according to the 2006-2008 .American conduct of U.S census bureau stated that the population of the Minneapolis- metropolitan area was 3,197,225. Approximately 49.7% of the population was male and 50.3% were female. It included the under 5 years -7.2% ,age group of 5-9 years were- 6.8%, &10-14 years were- 7.0%,15-19 years were- 6.9%,20-24 years were- 6.5%,25-34 years were- 13.6%,35-44 years were -15.7%,45-54 years were-15.8%,55-59 years were-6.1%,60-64 years were-4.4%,65-74 years were-5.3%,75-84 years were -3.2%,85 years and over were -1.5%,Median age considered was 36.3 years, Whites in the population were 84.3% ,of which 81.6% ,were non Hispanic whites, African American accounted 6.4%,American Indians were 0.6%,Asians 4.9%%,Some other races0.7%,Hispanic or Latino were about 4.6% of the total population.

Stay Connected

Live Chat Order now

Approximately 91.2% of the metropolitan area's population in Minneapolis was native to the United States. Approximately 90.6% were born in the U.S. while 0.6% were born in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, or born abroad to American parents. The rest of the population (8.8%) was foreign-born. The highest percentages of immigrants came from Asia (38.2%), Latin America (25.4%), and Africa (20.1%); smaller percentages of newcomers came from Europe (13.1%), other parts of North America (3.0%), and Oceania (0.2%).

Richard Florida’s research is focused mainly on the Demographics and their effect on economical development. Florida’s description for the creative class occupations states that creative class workers composes of scientists and engineers, university professors, poets and architects, and also includes "people in design, education, arts, music and entertainment”, whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology and/or creative content, others are the health professionals and business managers, who are considered part of the sub-group called Creative Professionals and are responsible for the leading force of growth in the economy. He says that, while traditional economic development and growth strategies have been driven by a demand-side strategy – attract jobs to get the people - today’s economy requires a“supplyside” strategy. Such a strategy depends upon understanding the 3T’s of regional economic development – Technology, Talent, and Tolerance—by essentially improving the ability of places to compete for people as well as for companies. Places must offer substantial and balanced performance across all three to sustain long-run growth and prosperity.

Myron Orfield is an expert on state and local finance, land use planning, civil rights, and state and local government. He is also a law professor and director of the Institute of Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota. He introduced a revolutionary program for combating the seemingly inevitable decline of America's metropolitan communities. Through a combination of demographic research, state-of-the-art mapping, and resourceful, pragmatic politics, his groundbreaking book, Metro politics, revealed how the different regions of St. Paul and Minneapolis pulled together to create a regional government powerful enough to tackle the community's problems of sprawl and urban decays.

His new work American Metro politics provides an eye-opening analysis of the economic, racial, environmental, and political trends of the 25 largest metropolitan regions in the United States-which contain more than 45 percent of the U.S. population. Using detailed maps and case studies, Orfield demonstrates that growing social separation and wasteful sprawling development patterns are harming regional citizens wherever they live. His first section of book Metro patterns explains the common pattern of growing social separation and wasteful sprawling development throughout the country-a condition that limits opportunity for the poor particularly people of color, diminishes the quality of life for most Americans, and threatens our fragile environment. It also shows how these patterns reveal the existence of three types of suburban communities-those at risk of social and economic decline, those struggling to pay for rapid growth, and a very small number of places that enjoy the benefits of economic growth with few social costs.

The work being done by Booking’s institution about suburban decline specifies the fact that, economic success enables households and businesses to move to higher-valued real estate. That movement, which is directed mainly toward newer and larger properties, may be the most important force operating in metropolitan areas, but urban public policy has taken little account of it. For most movers, options for moving up are located primarily farther out from the area’s center. As the moves occur, the supply of real estate changes. New structures are built and existing structures age: most deteriorate, become obsolete, fall out of fashion and “filter down” in value, a process that ultimately results in abandonment and demolition. Deterioration and decline are already beginning to appear in some older suburbs. This model of metropolitan dynamics probably applies most closely to Midwest locations and may be less applicable in other regions of the country, particularly rapidly growing areas in the Southwest and South. This paper describes the cycle of housing movement in metropolitan areas, the role that public policy has played in supporting this cycle, and the ways in which policy alternatives can help improve metropolitan growth dynamics and strengthen urban core communities.