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Episode 1, Retired....or Rewired?:
- Introduction:Overview of series, and demographics
Dr. Uma Krishnan, Demographer, City Housing Bureau
A little over 72,000 Portland residents are 65 years of age or older and they make up close to 12% of Portland’s population. A further breakdown of this age groups reveals that just over 29,000 are 75 years or older and nearly 10,400 are 85 years and older.
Portland’s share of older adults is comparable to that of Multnomah County. However, the metro area, state and the nation have a larger share of people 65 and older than Portland. The number and share of older adults has increased in all geographies in the five period under consideration
Just like the City, there are more older women than older men. There are nearly 10,000 more women 65 older than men in this age category. A large part (~4,100) of this difference can be attributed to women 85 years and over.
Older adults are less diverse in their racial/ethnic makeup. Just over 85% of older adults are White. In comparison, 78% of the Portland identifies as White. Interestingly, the share of other races like African Americans/ Asian etc. are not much different when comparing the older adults to the City as a whole. The main difference that can be observed is in the “some other race” category. This difference can be attributed to the relatively young Hispanic population in the City who tend to identify as “some other race”.
Close to 13% of Portlanders identify having a disability status. In numbers, this is close to 79,500 people having some form of disability or the other.Older adults make up just over one-half (33%) this population.
Just over one-fifth (21%) of older adults in Portland have either worked full time or worked part-time in 2016.In numbers, we have over 5,200 older adults who worked full time while nearly double that number (10,000+) worked part-time.
Is this a good place to be an old person?
In my opinion, the response to this question is certainly influenced by where the older person is living in the City. True, personal factors (income/health/family) all determine whether a place is good to “retire”. However, the large size of Portland and variations in “access to opportunities” influence quality of life for all types of households including older households.
Portland’s Housing Bureau has created a composite opportunity map that illustrates access to opportunity throughout the City to better understand where Portlanders do and do not have access to the public and private amenities that foster economic improvement and personal wellbeing. The level of access to opportunity is determined as a composite score on the following five indicators:
- public transportation access
- pedestrian infrastructure,
- proximity to quality education
- proximity to healthy living resources
- access to employment
In the resulting opportunity heat map, the darker a place, greater is the access to opportunity. One way to understand disparities in access to opportunity for older adults is to overlay spatial distribution of older adults with disabilities in relationship to Portland’s Opportunity Map. The following map illustrates this spatial relationship:
Notes:
- Census Tracts highlighted in blue over the opportunity maps are areas with 46.9% or more people age 65 and older with disability
- Spatial clustering can be observed in and around downtown Portland which is high in opportunity (services)
- Clustering can also be observed in areas with low and medium levels of opportunity in eastern parts of the City and in northwest
Informed by this analysis, for an older adult who has an affordable housing option in areas with high opportunity, Portland is a wonderful place to retire. However, for an older adult who does not have an affordable housing option and has some of disability or the other and is living in areas with low opportunity- Portland is not the ideal place to retire.
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By Thomas Flynn- Introduction:Overview of series, and demographics
Dr. Uma Krishnan, Demographer, City Housing Bureau
A little over 72,000 Portland residents are 65 years of age or older and they make up close to 12% of Portland’s population. A further breakdown of this age groups reveals that just over 29,000 are 75 years or older and nearly 10,400 are 85 years and older.
Portland’s share of older adults is comparable to that of Multnomah County. However, the metro area, state and the nation have a larger share of people 65 and older than Portland. The number and share of older adults has increased in all geographies in the five period under consideration
Just like the City, there are more older women than older men. There are nearly 10,000 more women 65 older than men in this age category. A large part (~4,100) of this difference can be attributed to women 85 years and over.
Older adults are less diverse in their racial/ethnic makeup. Just over 85% of older adults are White. In comparison, 78% of the Portland identifies as White. Interestingly, the share of other races like African Americans/ Asian etc. are not much different when comparing the older adults to the City as a whole. The main difference that can be observed is in the “some other race” category. This difference can be attributed to the relatively young Hispanic population in the City who tend to identify as “some other race”.
Close to 13% of Portlanders identify having a disability status. In numbers, this is close to 79,500 people having some form of disability or the other.Older adults make up just over one-half (33%) this population.
Just over one-fifth (21%) of older adults in Portland have either worked full time or worked part-time in 2016.In numbers, we have over 5,200 older adults who worked full time while nearly double that number (10,000+) worked part-time.
Is this a good place to be an old person?
In my opinion, the response to this question is certainly influenced by where the older person is living in the City. True, personal factors (income/health/family) all determine whether a place is good to “retire”. However, the large size of Portland and variations in “access to opportunities” influence quality of life for all types of households including older households.
Portland’s Housing Bureau has created a composite opportunity map that illustrates access to opportunity throughout the City to better understand where Portlanders do and do not have access to the public and private amenities that foster economic improvement and personal wellbeing. The level of access to opportunity is determined as a composite score on the following five indicators:
- public transportation access
- pedestrian infrastructure,
- proximity to quality education
- proximity to healthy living resources
- access to employment
In the resulting opportunity heat map, the darker a place, greater is the access to opportunity. One way to understand disparities in access to opportunity for older adults is to overlay spatial distribution of older adults with disabilities in relationship to Portland’s Opportunity Map. The following map illustrates this spatial relationship:
Notes:
- Census Tracts highlighted in blue over the opportunity maps are areas with 46.9% or more people age 65 and older with disability
- Spatial clustering can be observed in and around downtown Portland which is high in opportunity (services)
- Clustering can also be observed in areas with low and medium levels of opportunity in eastern parts of the City and in northwest
Informed by this analysis, for an older adult who has an affordable housing option in areas with high opportunity, Portland is a wonderful place to retire. However, for an older adult who does not have an affordable housing option and has some of disability or the other and is living in areas with low opportunity- Portland is not the ideal place to retire.