The 2000 Census Enumerated the Region's Population
The population of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District is very dynamic. People are constantly moving into and out of the region. Net migration from 1990 to 2000 was on the order of 25,000 persons. Much of the migration involved students at the University, but another major component was an estimated 4800 net in-migration of people over 65. The region is a desirable place for retirement. Many are also "Aging in Place". This section of the web site explores some of the dimensions of the aging population and its spatial distribution. The major source for this information is the 2000 Census of Population and Housing. While five years old at the time of this study, this data still represents the most comprehensive picture of the region's demographic and housing characteristics. As the American Community Survey becomes available, some of these images can be refined.
The census attempts to enumerate every housing unit in the nation and enumerate individuals not residing in housing units. But data is reported by small geographic regions aggregating individual responses to protect confidentiality. Much of this information is discussed in an accompanying Census Glossary and more detailed descriptions are available at the U.S. Census Bureau. Information about the number of people is reported at the Census Block level, demographic and housing detail data is reported at the Block Group and Census Tract levels.
The Senior Population and Jefferson Area Board of Aging 2020 Plan
The characteristics of the aging population displayed focuses on the some of the issues confronting Jefferson Area Board of Aging's comprehensive plan. These issues deal with the growing number of older citizens, their living arrangements, the quality of life (including their accessibility to services), and their financial means.
The first of these characteristics will be explored on this page. Others appear on their own separate pages. The basic images are small and download quickly. Each map can be viewed in a larger format or downloaded in higher print quality images (PDF). Accessing these images using a high speed phone modem will still take considerable time.
How Many People are in the "Senior Population" of TJPDC? Where do they live?
The population of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District on April 1, 2000 as enumerated by the Census was 199,648. (Details of the different counties in aggregate are available at the TJPDC site.) Of these 24,488 or 12.3% were persons 65 years of age or older. These were spread among the older age cohorts as displayed in the table below:
The vast majority of the population is in City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, but there is substantial distribution among the rest of the counties including concentrations in residential communities in Fluvanna County (Lake Montecello) and Nelson County (Wintergreen). Greene County also is attractive to many seniors because of its affordability. The dots in the following map are placed at random within the Census Blocks, they do not represent the actual location of people's homes.
The distribution of persons who are not in institutional care among the jurisdictions demonstrates that the more senior populations are slightly more oriented toward the urban core areas in Charlottesville and Albemarle and to a slight degree in Greene County. Access to services and perhaps more appropriate housing are likely attractive forces. However, there is still a considerable fraction of the senior population who are living in the rural counties.
Percent of Population who are Seniors
Two measures of "concentration" can be examined. The first is to compare the Senior population with total population. Are the seniors isolated? Are they in neighborhoods in proximity to persons of younger ages? Are they clustering together? The map below shows the Percent of Total Population in 2000 who were 65 Years of Age or older. The information is mapped at the census block level. Dark areas show blocks that have high percentages of just seniors. Light areas show where there are relatively fewer seniors. With 12.3 percent of the region's population 65 years of age or older, the blocks with any thing more than 15% could be considered "specialized" in senior population. Specialized areas are evident throughout the region with very specialized pockets in both urban and rural settings.
(Larger Image/PDF File ~200K)
Senior Population Density
A second expression of concentration is relative to land area. The following map displays the number of persons 65 years of age and older per square mile of land area. Again the map is displaying census blocks so some areas have very low density despite larger numbers, and some areas high density because of the small land area and even modest numbers of seniors.
(
Larger Image/
PDF File ~200K)
