The latest population statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau show Texas County’s population declined over the last two years.
The agency pegged the county’s population at 25,810, a decrease of 198 from 2010. The bureau said the county’s percentage change from April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2012 was eight-tenths of a percentage point.
The breakdown of ages and education in 2011 shows:
•Persons under 5 years, 2011, 6.1 percent; persons under 18 years, 21.8; persons 65 years and over, 18.2; and females, 48.1. Eighty percent are high school graduates. About 11.6 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Housing and demographical information: housing units, 11,730; homeownership rate, 2007-2011, 73.8 percent; housing units in multi-unit structures, 2007-2011, 7 percent; Median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2007-2011, $93,800; households, 2007-2011, 9,560; persons per households, 2007-2011, 2.51; Per capita income in the last 12 months, $17,034. Median household income, 2007-2011, $33,128; and persons living below poverty, 2007-2011, 20.2 percent.
A record number of U.S. counties — more than one in three — are now dying off, hit by an aging population and weakened local economies that are spurring young adults to seek jobs and build families elsewhere, the U.S. Census Bureau said.
New 2012 census estimates released highlight the population shifts as the United States encounters its most sluggish growth levels since the Great Depression.
The findings also reflect the increasing economic importance of foreign-born residents as the U.S. ponders an overhaul of a major 1965 federal immigration law. Without new immigrants, many metropolitan areas such as New York, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh and St. Louis would have posted flat or negative population growth in the last year.