ELIZABETHTOWN — Population is down nearly 16 percent, 1 out of 5 people live in poverty, and households without a broadband internet subscription are more than 12 percent below the national norm.
Those figures and more about Bladen County were unveiled Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The every 10 years count information was delayed release by COVID-19.
Bladen County’s population across its 874 square miles as of July 1, 2020 is 29,606, some 15.9 percent below the 2010 count of 35,190. The 2019 estimate had shown roughly half that in decrease, to only 32,722.
Bladen’s drop was the seventh-largest by percentage, and moved it from 67th largest to 70th of the 100 counties.
State population rose to 10,439,388 from 9,535,483 a decade earlier on April 1, 2010.
The median household income for the county, in 2019 dollars, from 2015-19 was $36,173 — 42.4 percent below the national average. There are 21.2 percent living in poverty. In the state, the median income is $54,602 and 13.6 percent live in poverty.
The Census Bureau uses a set of money income thresholds that vary by family size and composition to determine who is in poverty, its website says. If a family’s total income is less than the family’s threshold, then that family and every individual in it is considered in poverty. The official poverty thresholds do not vary geographically, but they are updated for inflation using Consumer Price Index.
Access to highspeed internet is a problem that glowed white-hot as schools tried to cope with the pandemic and companies like Star Communications of Clinton tried to offer assistance. In measuring from 2015-19, the census found 80.4 percent of households have a computer and 70.2 percent have a broadband internet subscription — statistics that are below the national norms of 90.3 percent and 82.7 percent.
In the state, 89.1 percent of households have a computer and 80.7 percent have a broadband internet subscription.
Education was another area where the county failed to score well. Only 15.8 percent of persons age 25-and-up have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and only 81.3 percent of the same age group have a high school diploma. North Carolina’s numbers, 31.3 percent and 87.8 percent respectively, more closely resemble the national rates of 32.1 percent and 88 percent, respectively.
The county, in 2019, had 531 employer establishments, with 10,869 people employed.
Alan Wooten can be reached at 910-247-9132 or awooten@bladenjournal.com. Twitter: @JournalBladen.