New Census Data

Some of the census data is out for Wisconsin.  Currently, there are only data on population numbers, race, Hispanic ethnicity, and occupancy.  You can find the numbers at American FactFinder.

The metro area grew by 55,385 people. All numbers are comparing the 2000 and the 2010 censuses.

• City of Milwaukee was previously 596,974, but lost 2,141 people and are now at 594,833. Mayor Barrett has pointed out that this is a loss of just 4/10th of a percentage, while other Midwestern cities have seen far steeper losses, such as Chicago at -7% and Cleveland at -17%.
• Despite the City of Milwaukee's slight decline, Milwaukee County gained 7,780 people going from 940,146 to 947,935.
• Waukesha County went from 360,767 to 389,891 (+29,124)
• Ozaukee County from 82,317 to 86,395. (+4,078)
• Washington County from 117,493 to 131,887 (+14,394)

The state of Wisconsin went from 5,363,675 to 5,686,986 (+323,311), which a nice growth, but not as rapid as some states, nor as slow as others. Wisconsin basically grew just enough to keep its U.S. House of Representatives delegates (which are allocated based on population).

Looking more closely at Wisconsin, we see that it is slowly becoming more diverse, going from 88.9% white to 86.2% white (nationally, it was 75.1% white in 2000, probably lower now), and in Waukesha County, we see that statistic changing from 95.8% to 93.3% white.  But what's remarkable to me, is that even though Waukesha County grew substantially, is close distance to the biggest concentration of minority population (City of Milwaukee), it still remains largely white.  One would think with all the employment opportunities in Waukesha County, there's be more people leaving high-poverty (and likely minority) areas toward job opportunities.

The Hispanic population in Waukesha County went from 2.6% to 4.1% , an increase of 6,620 (remember that Hispanic is considered an ethnicity rather than a race) compared to Wisconsin's 3.6% to 5.9%.

Just so there's no confusion, I consider segregation to be undesirable, and the fact that metropolitan Milwaukee is one of the most heavily segregated area in the country should be embarrassing to us all.  Further analysis of Census data should soon tell us how the metro area is doing on that front.

Note:  Missing word added after initial posting.