Today let’s take a quick look at maps that zoom in from the regional, to the state, to the local level based on the newest ACS data. These maps cover a range of topics that I have been discussing in presentations lately. For all of this work, I am using the tidycensus package in R, created by TCU geography professor Kyle Walker, along with a label editing assist from ChatGPT to help with the code. You can learn to use tidycensus here. For all things maps and data, Professor Walker is a great follow on social media (e.g. here is a recent map he created of drive times from Nike’s Beaverton headquarters).
Note that these first three charts will be using the 2022 ACS 1 year estimates, which are available at the Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA) level which are geographies of about 100,000 residents. The fourth chart uses census tract level data for the 2022 ACS 5 year estimates.
Map 1: Pacific Northwest Employment Rates
Historically, cities are where human progress has been made. The impact of lots of people living near each other, interacting, sharing ideas and driving innovation in totality is greater than the sum of its individual parts. And while it is true that large metros on the West Coast are lagging many of their smaller metro and rural neighbors this cycle, the urban-rural divide remains noticeable. The first map below shows the employment rates among 25-64 year olds across the Pacific Northwest.
It is clear that urban areas still have the strongest, most vibrant economies today, even if the relative growth patterns in recent years have shifted some. Both Portland and Seattle have high employment rates, as do other metros like Bend, Boise, Bozeman, Eugene, Medford, Spokane, and the like. You can see how employment rates within the urban/city portions of these counties have higher employment rates than the surrounding areas. This speaks to the continued productivity and importance of large, diversified economies even in a world of more remote work and a broader dispersion of population given the outflows of large cities during the pandemic. Urban areas still matter.
Map 2: Working from Home in Oregon
One of the long-lasting impacts from the pandemic has been the increased ability and acceptance of working from home (WFH). In 2022, 15% of the U.S. workforce worked from home most of the time, while it was 19% here in Oregon.
These impacts are seen in all of our communities. That said, one major shift in this data in recent years has been the relative pattern of WFH. The highest rates, and largest increases have primarily been within big cities. At first, the patterns looked like city residents sheltering in place. But now it’s not about the pandemic, but about changing workplace practices. Many workers still live in the big cities and suburbs, but are just no longer commuting into the office as often. As such, 13 of the 15 highest WFH share parts of the state are in the Portland Tri-County area with the Top 3 being in the City of Portland specifically (30%+ WFH rate). The other 2 in the top 15 that aren’t in the Portland region probably aren’t a surprise with the City of Bend (25%, ranking 9th highest) and the rest of Central Oregon (19%, 15th highest).
Map 3: Child Poverty in Portland
This next map shows the 2022 child poverty rate in the Portland region. It consists of all the PUMAs in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties in Oregon, in addition to Clark County in Washington.
The concentration of child poverty in a few specific areas of the Portland region stands out. East Portland in particular has the highest rate of child poverty in the state at 25%. Overall the U.S. child poverty rate is 16%, and Oregon as a whole is 14%. High rates of child poverty are also seen in the Portland area in Oregon City/Gladstone (19%), Beaverton-Cedar Mill (15%), and in West Vancouver in SW Washington (14%) . Economic research has shown that one of the key factors affecting economic mobility – the probability a child is born poor but grows up to be successful – is economic and racial segregation. Children growing up in concentrated poverty are at a noticeable disadvantage. So even as the recovery from the pandemic has been broad-based and inclusive, it does not mean these disparities are gone.
Map 4: Southern Oregon Household Income
The final map of the data looks at median household income by Census tract across a broadly defined Southern Oregon region that includes Coos, Curry, Douglas, Jackson, Josephine, Klamath, and Lake counties. This data comes from the just-released 2022 ACS 5 year estimates. Right now the 5 year estimates are a little bit of a goofy time period as it includes a couple pre-pandemic years, the pandemic, and the initial recovery. But it is the most recently available data for places that are not part of large metros or counties.
In the 2022 ACS 5 year estimates, the U.S. median household income stands at $75,000 and Oregon is $77,000. Given that much of Southern Oregon is rural, you will see that most of these census tracts have incomes lower than the state or the nation. That said you do see higher incomes (darker colors) on the edges of Coos Bay, Roseburg, Medford, and Klamath Falls. Economically that’s part of the city impacts of the larger, more diverse economies showing up, and also I suspect the impact of higher-income households clustering in certain areas due to housing, be it neighborhoods with larger homes, or larger lots, or up on the side of the mountains with views and the like. But like a quilt, you will also see low-income census tracts patchworked right next to these tracts pointing out the wider range of socio-economic outcomes we have in our society.
