Newcomers dominate population

Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2001 | 9 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Nearly everyone who lives in Las Vegas used to call someplace else home.

What many local residents already knew from talking to neighbors became official federal data today with the release of the Census Bureau's 2000 Supplemental Survey.

The report revealed that 85 percent of the homes in Clark County were occupied by people who moved in between 1990 and 2000. The national average was 65 percent.

Native Nevadans are a rare breed here. Eighty-three percent of Clark County residents were born in the United States, but only 27 percent were born in Nevada.

The survey also revealed that only 2 percent of Las Vegas homes were occupied by residents who had lived there for more than 30 years.

Las Vegas wasn't alone in its high numbers of newcomers. Four other cities in the fast-growing West could count fewer than 5 percent of their residents among oldtimers: Mesa, Ariz., where only 1 percent moved into their homes in 1969 or earlier, Phoenix, Santa Ana, Calif., and Colorado Springs, Colo.

Cities in the Northeast, a region where populations stagnated or declined, ranked higher in people who stayed put: 18 percent of Philadelphia homes and 11 percent of those in Buffalo, N.Y., were occupied by people who had been there since at least 1969.

The Census Bureau's latest statistical snapshot looks at American standards of living at the turn of the century. The survey, which was separate from the 2000 Census, covered 700,000 U.S. households.

It had a margin of error of 10 percent, unlike the Census, which is supposed to be a full count with no statistical error. The survey also is a snapshot now a year old.

The ranking of Clark County among the 216 counties surveyed nationwide sketched a portrait of the Las Vegas Valley as a place with a growing Hispanic population, average incomes and low educations. The county's rankings:

* 40th among Spanish-speaking residents.

* 55th in number of residents who speak a foreign language.

* 67th in number of residents with less than a high school degree.

* 99th in median home value.

* 110th in average time traveled to work.

* 114th in median household income.

* 121st in number of residents living in poverty.

* 196th in number of residents holding a bachelor's degree.

Service-related industries employed 53 percent of county residents 16 and older. Eighty-five percent of the employees were private wage and salary workers, 11 percent worked in government and 4 percent were self-employed.

Only 17 percent of Clark County residents held bachelor's degrees, while 15 percent of the residents 16 to 19 were dropouts.

While low, that wasn't the worst. Santa Ana, Calif., had the highest percentage of people 25 and older with less than a high school education, with 60 percent.

Median household income in Clark County was $43,170, and 23 percent of the residents received Social Security, averaging $11,426 each.

That compared with San Jose, Calif., which topped the nation with a median household income of $72,268.

But salary isn't everything. San Jose also had the median home price, at $430,612.

"Most people now can't afford to live here. They're moving out," said longtime San Jose resident Pat Capper.

Median home mortgages in Clark County ran $1,159 a month, and renters paid $725 a month on average. Thirty-six percent of homeowners with mortgages and 46 percent of renters spent at least 30 percent of their income on housing.

Residents of New York City's suburbs also had high median household incomes, but with them the longest commutes. Workers living in Nassau County on Long Island have a median household income of $70,806 and typically travel 35 minutes one way to get back and forth from work.

The average commute in Clark County was 24 minutes, the same as the national average. Only 9 percent of Clark County residents carpooled to work, and only 4 percent took public transportation.

Ten percent of Clark County's residents lived in poverty.

Sun reporter Steve Kanigher and the Associated Press contributed to this story.