Limited Census Reporting

I've been eyeing this item all week, and after crunching census figures for several days can finally sink my teeth into it.

The Ellsworth American (and, in its wake, WCSH and Associated Press) has reported that Ellsworth was the fastest growing city in Maine from 2000 to 2010. The city's population grew from 6,456 to 7,741 in the last decade, an increase of 1,285 people, or 19.9 percent, according to official U.S. 2010 Census data.

Technically, Ellsworth was the fastest growing city in Maine between 2000 and 2010, but that is because most municipalities in Maine call themselves towns instead of cities. Of the more than 500 civil divisions in Maine (cities, towns, plantations, and unorganized territories) counted by the federal census takers, only 21 of them are cities. So there's a lot less competition among cities than towns for the title of which grew the fastest.

If you look at all municipal entities in the state, several towns (even some plantations and some unorganized territories) grew by higher percentages - a feat that admittedly is relatively easy to accomplish if a town started out with only a few hundred or even fewer residents. For example, Carrabasset Valley in Franklin County grew from 399 residents to 781, which makes for a whopping growth rate of 95.7 percent. Kingsbury Plantation in Piscataquis County grew by 211 percent - from 9 residents to 28 residents.

Some towns in Maine have larger populations than Ellsworth and added more residents in the past decade, though their growth rates may be smaller. The towns of Gorham, Scarborough and Windham each added more residents than Ellsworth, but because each is at least twice as big as Ellsworth, their growth rates are smaller, ranging from about 11.5 percent (Scarborough) to nearly 16 percent (Gorham).  Orono, a town with an estimated 2010 population of 10,362 residents, added 1,250 people since 2000 (almost as many as Ellsworth), for a growth rate of 13.7 percent. Those growth rates are nothing to sneeze at; many cities and large towns have seen their populations shrink since 2000.

Other decent sized towns (for Maine) also grew more than Ellsworth. Waterboro in York County, which has only 48 fewer residents than Ellsworth, had greater growth. It added 1,479 residents this past decade, giving it 7,693 total and a growth rate of 23.8 percent. Hermon grew by nearly 1,000 people for a total of 5,416 and a growth rate of 22 percent. Levant, now with 2,851 residents, grew by 680 people for a 31 percent growth rate. The towns of Alfred, Athens, Bradley, Brownfield, Etna, Hebron, Jackman, Limerick, Palermo, Thorndike, Wales, and Warren also all each have grown by more than 20 percent since 2000.

I don't mean to get too stat happy with all this (too late?), but my point is fairly simple: Ellsworth's growth, though significant, is not so unique that it is the only growth worth reporting. I am sure smaller news organizations focused in other municipalities have focused on their home communities in their census reporting, just as the Ellsworth American did in its article about its namesake city. This is the appropriate thing for them to do.

But news organizations with much broader audiences such as WCSH and Associated Press should not just repeat news about one municipality's census growth without putting it into context with the growth of others. Cities aren't necessarily bigger than towns in Maine (the town of Brunswick, for example, has a population of 20,278 people), so why a city that happens to be the 39th largest municipality in Maine should be singled out just doesn't make sense to me.

I should say I have nothing against Ellsworth, which is where I live, and that I think its growth deserves to be mentioned. I just wish there was more coverage. preferably in-depth, of the census results than I have seen so far (which includes this decent BDN story about the statewide and biggest-municipality figures).

If you're interested in more census stats, nationwide figures are available at the official U.S. Census site, but don't ask me to explain how to track down specific info from their database. I know a little about how to do it, but it's too complicated for me to lay out here. There is simplified census data just for Maine at the State Planning Office website. I've made some of my own spreadsheets - one for Hancock County, one for Washington County, and one for every municipality in Maine with around 4,000 residents or more. I've left some fields blank (specifically, Latino and Native American percentages for some Washington County towns) because I haven't had time to fill them in yet. I hope to at some point soon.