Quad City Times, IA
09-16-07
Married Q-C couples now in the minority
By Ed Tibbetts
For the first time, married couples are a minority of Quad-City households, a new
government survey says.
The finding is part of a nationwide trend toward greater diversification of living
arrangements that began to take place decades ago but only recently crossed
the 50 percent threshold that demographers and other analysts find significant.
Of the 153,423 households in the Quad-City area in 2006, 76,310, or 49.7
percent, were led by married couples. That’s down from 52 percent in 2000.
The new figures are part of a broad swath of data released Wednesday by the
U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
The decline in the ratio of married households in favor of other living
arrangements is part of a long-identified trend that the rest of the country is
experiencing, too.
Last year, the Census Bureau reported the country dipped below the 50 percent
line, and now the Quad-Cities has followed suit.
“Households are made up of many different family types,” said Susan Stewart,
an associate professor of sociology at Iowa State University.
The trend is being pushed along by such factors as people delaying the age at
which they marry, greater cohabitation and an aging population, with women in
particular outliving their husbands.
Last year, the median age at which men and women married was five years
higher than in 1960. In fact, 7 in 10 households held married couples in 1960.
Broken down, the married-couple ratio in Rock Island County was 46.2 percent
last year, while in Scott County it was 49.2 percent. The rate for the other
counties in the area’s metropolitan statistical area — Henry and Mercer — were
not available.
In addition, the survey says the ratio of Quad-City households with traditional
families (married couples with children) continues to decline. Just 19.8 percent of
households in the area held married couples with children, down from 21.9
percent in 2000.
The number was particularly low in Rock Island County, where just 17 percent of
households held traditional families. In Scott County, it was 21.5 percent.
The new data also says that homeownership in the Quad-Cities has ticked
upward slightly so far this decade.
In 2006, 71.8 percent of occupied housing units were owner-occupied. That’s a
bit higher than 71.3 percent six years ago.
Stan Czachowski, a mortgage consultant at Valley Bank, said the combination of
affordable financing and government and nonprofit programs aimed at helping
first-time home buyers keep ownership rates in the state — and the local area —
high.
“If there was an influx of younger people into Iowa ... the amount of people
buying homes could increase,” he added.
The new figures are from a survey sent to 3 million American households, so the
margins of error could have an impact on some of the closer calls.
That includes the rate of change estimated for home ownership in the area and
the ratio of married households. Still, with the latter, the trend is clear.
In 1990, married couples made up 56 percent of the Quad-City households.
Here is a look at some of the other Census data for the Quad-Cities:
Median home values climbed to $111,000 in 2006, up 13.9 percent from 2000 in
inflation adjusted values.
The ratio of the area’s population over 25 years old that holds a four-year college
degree or higher climbed from 20.2 percent to 22.1 percent.
Median age went from 36.9 to 38.1.
The area’s foreign-born population was 14,352, or about 3.8 percent of the
overall population.
The average travel time to work was 19.3 minutes.
Ed Tibbetts can be contacted at (563) 383-2327 or etibbetts@qctimes.com.
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