What do we know about ourselves in Tucson? And how have we changed since the beginning of the 21st century? Surprisingly maybe not all that much. The population is up, but the composition is only slowly changing. We’re getting older. Mortgages are taking a higher percentage of household income. And, for what it’s worth, even fewer of us are using solar energy to heat our homes.

I’ve admitted before I can be a geek about statistics and data. The U.S. Census Bureau this month released its annual American Community Survey. As luck would have it, I also happen to have similar data from 2000. That got me looking at some comparables about metropolitan Tucson 2008 versus what it was in 2000. 

• Population has grown by 23 percent to 1,012,018 from 821,712.

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• But percentage-wise the number of household units isn’t keeping the same pace, up 16.3 percent to 426,382 from 366,737.

• Women outnumber men, 51 percent to 49 percent, but that margin is only slightly thinner from the 2.4 percent difference eight years ago.

• We’re getting older, the median age is now 37.1, up from 35.9. That’s significant.

• We’re slowly becoming more racially diverse with 79.5 percent of us identified as white, 3.5 percent as black or African American, 3.3 percent as American Indian, 2.5 percent as Asian and 8.2 percent as “other.” Eight years ago those percentages were 79 percent white, 2.7 percent black or African American, 2.9 percent American Indian, 2.2 percent Asian, and 9.6 percent “other.”

• Hispanics, which isn’t a separate race, now make up 33.1 percent of the region’s population, up from 29.6 percent.

• What most of us would identify as white (i.e. of European ancestry) now make up 46.4 percent of the region’s population versus 49.4 percent in 2000. (That’s a calculation I made, assuming Hispanics are lumped racially with whites in the census numbers.)

• English is the only language spoken in 72.5 percent of the region’s households, about the same as the 72.7 percent of eight years ago.

• Spanish is spoken in 22.7 percent of households, with 7.9 percent of households saying they speak English less than “very well.” Again, those numbers aren’t much changed from 2000 when 22.6 percent of households speak Spanish, with 7.5 percent saying they speak English less than “very well.” 

• A slightly smaller percentage of us live in households without a vehicle, 7.8 percent down from 8.2 percent in 2000.

• Natural gas is used to heat 58.1 percent of the region’s homes, up from 57.5 percent. I suppose it’s to be expected that not too many people would heat their homes with solar energy but I thought it was odd that it would drop from 0.5 percent of us in 2000 to a barely calculable 0.1 percent in 2008.

• Mortgage payments are taking a bigger bite out of household income. Those that are spending 20 percent or less on mortgage payments are down to 32.9 percent, from 40.5 percent in 2000.

Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or

(520) 295-4237.