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Demographics isn’t just a big word. It’s a powerful tool that local leaders can use to better understand their community’s present and future needs. The following tips will help you with demographic issues that may impact planning decisions:
1. Deal With Diversity. Diversity is the most important trend of the 21st Century. By 2005, three out of every ten Americans will be black, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander, or native American. An even greater share of America’s workers will come from these minority groups. Some urban areas, like Los Angeles and New York, are already well beyond these numbers. But minority populations are growing the fastest in some unexpected places. During the 1980s, Georgia saw the greatest increase in people who don’t speak English at home, with a gain of 113 percent. Metropolitan Atlanta’s immigrant population is fast approaching one-quarter million, with much of this growth in the suburbs.
The implications for planners are massive. Community services, like hospitals and schools, need to prepare for a multi-lingual client base. Authority figures, from police to planning commissioners, need to be aware of cultural differences, including unacceptable hand gestures, reasons for avoiding eye contact, and taboos against touching someone of the opposite sex. In order to give the best service to new residents, hiring practices should reflect the emerging population groups.
Because new immigrants are usually younger than the general population, and because many of them come from a tradition of large families, they may generate new growth in school-aged populations. They may even change the recreational needs of a community. For instance, newly immigrated Hispanic populations will be more interested in baseball and soccer fields than football fields or golf courses.
2. Understand Households. Even places that will not experience rapid gains in minorities will have to deal with a different type of diversity — changing lifestyles and living arrangements. Many city ordinances still define “families” according to a 1950s standard. But the typical family of the 1950s, married couples with children under 18, is expected to decline by 1 percent between 1990 and 2000, according to a study by American Demographics magazine. Couples without any children at all will increase 46 percent.
Nonfamilies will be one of the fastest growing household types, according to American Demographics. Nonfamilies include people living alone, unmarried hetero- and homosexual partners, roommates, and friends who live together as family. The number of women living alone will increase 17 percent over the decade of the 1990s and the number of men living alone will grow 20 percent. At the turn of the century, people living alone will outnumber married couples with young children.
The changing composition of American households will reshape both housing demand and land use needs. In some areas, growth in smaller, childless households will increase the demand for multifamily housing while decreasing the need for new schools. Don’t assume, however, that smaller households want rental units. Many new residents in resort, retirement, and professional communities will be older, more affluent householders who still want to own their own home in the form of a low-maintenance, luxury condominium. …
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