The City of O’Fallon continues to experience significant change in both size and composition. This report and the detailed attachments illustrate these changes using the 1990 and 2000 Census.
Significant Changes
Population
The most notable change from the previous decade is a 36% increase in population, resulting in 21,910 O’Fallon residents in the year 2000, compared to the US population increase of 13.15%.
Housing
Occupied housing levels remain very high with the vacancy rate at less than half the national average (3.7% vs. 9%). More than sixty-eight percent of housing in O’Fallon is owner occupied, surpassing the US level of 66.2%.
Education
Increasing numbers of O’Fallon residents possess a college education. Between 1990 and 2000, the percentage of residents with Bachelor degrees increased by 36% and the percentage with Masters or Professional degrees increased by over 28%. Nearly 39% of O’Fallon residents, over the age of 25 possess a bachelor’s degree or higher. This is considerably higher than the US level of 24.2%.
Income
Income increased during the 1990’s resulting in a median household income of $55,927 in the year 2000, a 55.2% increase. Per capita income also increased with a 50.1% increase producing $24,821 per person. The US level of $41,994 median income and $21,857 per capita are considerably less than that of O’Fallon.
Poverty
The 2000 poverty level of 4.9% in O’Fallon is slightly lower than the 1990 level and is less than half the US level of 12.05% for families.
Home Values
The $121,400 median home value in O’Fallon increased 57% compared to 1990 and now surpasses the US median value of $119,600.
Other Observations
The median age of residents in O’Fallon increased from 32.9 years to 35.3 years, bringing it identically to the US median age.
The average household and family size remained essentially the same with 2.62 persons per household and 3.13 persons per family. Both figures mirror the US averages.
The composition of families remained very similar to that of 1990 with just over 10% of school enrollment consisting of preschool and kindergarten students. Grades one through twelve account for slightly less than 66% of school enrollment in O’Fallon. The remaining 24% are enrolled in college or graduate school.
The employment picture improved for O’Fallon residents with more than 73% of those over the age of 16 working in the labor force, a slight increase compared to 1990. Changes occurred concerning what people do for a living with Management and Professional employment increasing 28.2% and Farming, Fishing and Forestry decreasing by 28%. Sales and office employment dropped by more than 20% while Construction employment decreased nearly 30% as a proportion of total employment.
*As a note, when viewing the attached tables, the column entitled “percentage change” should be interpreted as follows: since the city grew in population at a rate of 36% from 1990-2000, the numbers indicating anything greater than 0% mean that variable grew more rapidly as a proportion of the population. Those variables with a negative % mean it grew less as a proportion of the population.
Example 1:
In 1990 there were 2,830 residents over the age of 25 who were high school graduates with no further education. This accounted for 27.8% of the population over the age of 25 years. By 2000 this number dropped slightly to 2,812 persons or 20.3% of the population over the age of 25 years. All things being equal, the overall population increase of 36.3% would have resulted in 3,857 residents with a high school education. Instead, the number of people in this group decreased slightly, however the “proportion” to the overall population dropped by 26.8% as noted in the column “Percentage change”.
Attachments
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