Environmental Scan 2013

DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS

•  Five-Year Comparison. Available U.S., Texas, Bexar County, and San Antonio data on Race/ethnicity, Gender, Age, School enrollment, Educational attainment, Place of birth/citizenship, Language spoken at home, and Veteran status for 2003 and 2008 from the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey.
• Three-Year Population Growth in Service Area. Population of ages 15 to 64 and projections for the Alamo Colleges service area counties, state, and U.S.
• Three-Year Population Growth by Race/Ethnicity in Service Area. Population projections by race/ethnicity for the Alamo Colleges service area, state, and U.S.
• Educational Attainment in Service Area. The educational attainment of the Alamo Colleges service area population is presented by education level, ethnicity, and gender.
• Demographic Projections for Alamo Colleges. This demographic information was presented by Facility Programming and Consulting at the Alamo Colleges Board of Trustees retreat of 10/16/10. It includes population projections for Bexar County through 2020, top service area zip codes by college, peer college comparisons, and estimated enrollment for a future north central campus.
• San Antonio MSA Demographic Information. Various data tables on San Antonio MSA demographic characteristics, including 2012 projections.
• The Changing Demographics of America. The United States population will expand by 100 million over the next 40 years. Is this a reason to worry? Experts predict not only a large U.S. population for 2050, but also an older, more diverse one.

• Adults with College Degrees in the United States, by County. This is a an interactive tool by The Chronicle of Higher Education for exploring degree attainment data in the United States by county. According to Complete College America, with only 31 percent, Texas ranks 41st in the nation in percentage of young adults (aged 25-34) with a college degree.
• Census Data Show Rise in College Degrees and Racial Gaps in Education. The share of Americans with a college education has been increasing steadily for generations. The Census Bureau estimates that 28 percent of Americans 25 and older had at least four-year degrees in 2009, but the rate for black Americans was just 17 percent, and for Hispanic Americans only 13 percent.
• Community Colleges and Pell Grants. This American Association of Community Colleges report has among its findings: Nearly 80 percent of Pell Grant recipients attending community colleges in 2009-10 had family incomes of less than 150 percent of the federal poverty threshold, and 60.7 percent were below the poverty threshold for a family of four ($20,000); In 2009-10, 98.3 percent of Pell recipients at community colleges had allowable costs associated with attending college in excess of $6,000, and 91.9 percent had allowable costs in excess of $9,000; and Whereas only 40 percent of community college students enroll full time, nearly double that percentage of community college students receiving a Pell Grant were enrolled full time in 2009-10.
• Texas Colleges Confront Demographic Changes. With the changing demographics of college campuses, a compelling issue is how the growing number of minority students presents serious social and academic challenges for financially strapped universities, even as the schools are under pressure to boost graduation rates.
• The Future Rests on the Hispanic Population. "The Texas of today is the United States of tomorrow," says Steve Murdock, Rice University demographer and former Census Bureau chief. Data show that 12 states including Texas now have Anglo populations that have dipped below 50 percent. The Anglo population declined in 161 Texas counties, while the Hispanic population grew in 228. Two of every three children in Texas are of minority origin, and nearly half are Hispanic. The Texas future will be bright and prosperous only if Hispanics are prepared educationally. Unless the trend changes, 30 percent of the state's labor force will not have a high school diploma by 2040, and the average household income will be about $6,500 lower than it was in 2000.
• Hispanic College Enrollment Spikes. Driven by a single-year surge of 24 percent in Hispanic enrollment, the number of 18- to 24-year-olds attending college in the United States hit an all-time high of 12.2 million in October 2010, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis. From 2009 to 2010, the number of Hispanic young adults enrolled in college grew by 349,000, compared with an increase of 88,000 young blacks and 43,000 young Asian Americans and a decrease of 320,000 young non-Hispanic whites.
• Declining Numbers of Blacks in STEM. The percentage of African-Americans earning degrees in science, technology, engineering and math has fallen during the last decade. This article reviews the relevant statistics and the barriers.
• Trend: Men Gaining More Jobs Than Women. Since June 2009, men have gained 768,000 jobs while women have lost 218,000, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Department of Labor data. Some economists attribute the shift to a resurgence in manufacturing and other industries dominated by male workers, amid continued cuts in education, health care, and other industries with high percentages of female workers.
• Community Colleges Drawing More Affluent Students. A survey by Sallie Mae found that 22 percent of students from households earning $100,000 or more attended community colleges in the 2010-11 academic year, up from 12 percent in the previous year.
• College Graduation Gap Between the Rich and the Poor Widens. While more students from all backgrounds are finishing college, the difference in graduation rates between the top and bottom income groups has widened by nearly 50 percent over two decades, with 54 percent of students from wealthy families obtaining bachelor's degrees and only 9 percent of low-income students doing so.
• Increase in Number of Degrees and Credentials. The United States appears to have made significant headway in the 2011 academic year toward the goal of significantly increasing the number of degrees and other credentials that colleges award. A new interactive tool is the source of data providing a timely picture of completion according to state, type of institution, institution, and degree obtained.
• A Portrait of the Adult Children of Immigrants. According to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, second-generation Americans—the 20 million adult U.S.-born children of immigrants—have higher college graduation rates than immigrants, and their socioeconomic characteristics resemble those of the full U.S. adult population.