Allen County is growing though incomes have slipped, has mixed educational success among minority groups and more college graduates but relatively few with advanced degrees.

The findings are from a new local report that, while sounding some positive notes, expresses concern that black income, for example, has declined sharply compared with white income and poverty rates have increased dramatically among children and older residents.

The report, to be released today by the Community Research Institute at IPFW, provides a profile of Allen County using recent census figures. The institute’s staff has been analyzing the numbers for the last five months using a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, said John Stafford, the research group’s director. The grant was issued through the Community Foundation of Fort Wayne.

The report uses mostly data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, a sampling of the population between 2005 and 2009, and not 2010 census figures, which are slowly being rolled out this year. The report will be updated when newer data are available.

A draft copy of the report was provided to The Journal Gazette.

Stafford said the idea is to solicit community involvement in areas addressed by the report. He also noted that Allen County is not unique in its struggles.

“What’s going on in Allen County – northeast Indiana – is not radically different than what’s going on in many, many, many other Midwestern industrially based communities,” he said.

Here is a look at some the report’s findings:

Income

In the last decade, Allen County median household income fell below the national average for the first time. County wages based on a national scale have been declining since the 1980s, largely because of the loss of high-paying manufacturing jobs. The county’s increasing rate of single-person households – 27.4 percent and larger than the state and nation – is also a factor.

The declining income “is alarming in the sense that Allen County is the third largest populated county in the state,” the report cautions. “Urban areas tend to have higher wages for a variety of reasons.”

All minority median household incomes declined since 2000 in relation to white income. But blacks appear to be hit the hardest by the recession. With a median income of $28,132, blacks made about 54 percent of what white households earned, according to the 2005-09 data. That’s a 10-percentage-point drop since 1989.

“On a national level, the same is true for blacks and Hispanics except their income decline relative to whites has been greater in Allen County,” the report states.

Education

Allen County residents age 25 and older have a higher percentage of associate degrees than the state and nation, but trail in advanced college degrees.

Nationally, 10.1 percent of Americans have a master’s degree or more, while 7.7 percent of Allen County residents do.

Of those aged 25 to 34, 26.6 percent have a bachelor’s degree compared with 30.5 percent nationally. A higher percentage might be expected because the county is one of the largest urban areas in the state, the report states.

A higher number of associate degrees is important given “the manufacturing focus of our economy,” Stafford said. “Those appear to be the level at which a lot of our jobs are demanding that associate’s degree or technical training beyond high school. … Now that fits the economy that we are and we’ve been, not necessarily the economy we know we need to transition toward.”

Meanwhile, more than two in five area Hispanics failed to finish high school, a rate that has not improved in the last 20 years. In fact fewer Hispanic females on average graduated from high school, down to about 24 percent from 30 percent in 2000.

“This is a good example of the type of question we think the community engagement can help look at,” Stafford said. “I suspect we’re not the only ones who have identified this issue.”

Whether it represents lower educational attainment among recent immigrants or a trend among those already here is unclear.

Blacks, on the other hand, have improved educational attainment from high school through college. Blacks with a bachelor’s degree or higher have climbed from 8 percent in 1990 to 12 percent in 2009.

“That’s a substantial improvement in a relatively short period of time,” Stafford said.

Poverty

Until the recession, Allen County had a lower poverty rate than did the state and the nation.

In 2009, one out of five children was in poverty, up from one in eight in 2000, higher than the national average. In addition, while poverty rates among four age groups that represent people aged 25 to 64 were much lower than national levels in 2000, they surpassed national rates in 2009 with dramatic increases.

“This does not bode well as some of these persons will be entering the retirement phase of their lives, and the other half are still considered to be in the prime productive phase of their lives,” the report states. “Not only are they in poverty now, but it is a safe bet to assume preparation for retirement income is not taking place at the level it needs to be.”

Less than 3 percent of all seniors, representing more than 2,000 people, in the county live in poverty. Some older age groups have seen dramatic jumps in poverty.

With poverty rates for the 55 to 64 age group at 11 percent and the 65 to 74 group at 7.1 percent, “the future for seniors does not look as rosy as it once did,” the report states.

While the increase can be partly attributed to the recession, changes in traditional pension plans probably contributed, the report suggests. Contributions to 401(k) retirement plans “may not add up to the amounts necessary for future needs.”

rshawgo@jg.net