Bless the New York Times for taking one of the most complex statistical sets known to man and overlaying it on an easy-to-use map of the US, including our beloved Santa Clarita Valley. Checkitout:
Population Growth 2000-2010
Is there any wonder traditionally big schools like Hart High are shrinking? When I went to Hart in the mid 90s, there were over 2,400 students there. Now there’s less than 2000. Valencia -once the gem that attracted families to this valley- is old, tired, and shriveled like many of its residents (too mean?), the empty nest for the entire SCV.
The new hotness is in other parts of town. Like the west side of the 5 and North of Newhall Ranch. The percentage growth in these census tracts sounds huge until you realize that in 2000, much of this land was undeveloped. For instance, Laurie Ender’s hood, the North Valencia communities, posted gains of 300%+ in those ten years; that’s of course because much of that area was developed during that decade.
My neighborhood -Newhall south of Lyons- showed only about 6% growth in those ten years, making it one of the more stable parts of the SCV, at least as far as population growth is concerned. That’s because we’re all built out and we’re grumpy and protective of what we got. Get off our damn lawn and go SoLy!
Moving on, some more interesting highlights:
Population Density
So you have a sense of scale, the benchmark for population density in the USA is Manhattan, where humans are packed like sardines with densities of 50,000-100,000 per square mile.
And here’s some food for thought for wealthy SCVers who might be debating a home purchase in un-dense nouveau riche West Ridge vs Sand Canyon. In Sand Canyon, census figures show the population density of horses and other barnyard animals easily outpaces that of humans (only 478 bi-peds per square mile!), so if you’re rich and anti-density, Sand Canyon remains the place to be.
North Korea and West South Korea
Now the big story of the last 11 years has to be the Asian Migration to the Santa Clarita valley by primarily Korean families. As expected, the Census figures bear this out. Stevenson Ranch and other west-side neighborhoods saw huge numbers of Asians moving in; the census tract highlighted above showed a 180% increase in the number of Asians from 2000 to 2010. It’s to the point where Asians represent about a quarter of all west side residents in all the Stevenson Ranch/West Ridge census tracts listed.
On the north side of town, Asians represent more than 1/4 of the population, but since the area is so new, comparisons with 2000 don’t exist. This echoes a trend across the state of California, where the Asian population increased by 31% from 2000-2010.
Even on the floor of the valley in otherwise whitebread Valencia and Newhall, Asians are now between 5 and 10% of the population (a 20-50% increase over 2000), meaning they, like Latinos, have zero representation on our City Council.
White Bread
Everywhere else, blacks make up only 2 or 3 or 12% (one tract in Canyon Country) of Santa Clarita’s population. Overall, the black population of California decreased by 1% in California during this time period.
Race Overall
Green = White, Blue = Black, Yellow = Hispanic, Red = Asian
The Times data includes a handy plotter map of race distribution overall in the SCV. It’s not news that Latinos make up about 1/3rd of the City of Santa Clarita’s population, but as you can see here, they are largely located in two specific areas in Newhall and Canyon Country. However, the Hispanic population increased throughout the SCV in the last ten years (quite large in some areas) and, I suspect, is much more widely distributed now than it was in 2000.
Notice the little pocket of dots east of I-5 and north of Newhall Ranch Road? I suspect that’s the Pitchess Detention Center
There’s other maps on the Times’ site including vacant vs occupied housing so be sure to check it out!
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