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SAN DIEGO DEMOGRAPHICSUniversity of California,San Diego |
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SAN DIEGO DEMOGRAPHICSUniversity of California,San Diego |
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Transportation
About two thirds (67%) of the region's 1.2 million workers leave for work between 6:00am and 9:00am. Of those, 76 percent drive alone. The graphic depicts, by area, the proportion of workers during the morning commute that drive alone, carpool, and use public transit or other means to get to work. The size of the pie chart in each area is proportional to the number of workers living there.
The region's population and employment growth rates are correlated to national economic cycles and sensitive to military spending. A large part of our manufacturing base since World War II has relied on Department of Defense expenditures. As defense expenditures increased during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, our employment base increased and more people moved into the region. At the end of the war, defense spending decreased leading to fewer job opportunities and a reduction in the rate of population growth. The militart buildup of the mid-1980s again brought increased employment opportunities to the region, and population growth due to net migration also increased. By 1990, it was clear that the military spending would no longer sustain the levels they did in the mid-1980s. In the past few years employment in defense-related industries decreased dramatically as companies dependent on military expenditures began to downsize and restructure locally.
In 1990, employees in the San Diego region earned an average wage/salary of $22,131. The typical employee in the mining sector made $10,000 more than the average for the region. Workers in two of the nine sectors measured earned $6,000 to $9,000 less than the average for the region. Those who worked in the services sector in 1990 had the average wage closest to the regional average. These figures exclude most government employees, the self-employed, railroad employees, domestic service workers agricultural production workers, and employees on oceanborne vessels or in foreign countries.
As the economy expanded during the boom years of the mid-1980s, housing construction and housing authorization (building permits) increased each year. Beginning in 1987 this pattern reversed. Soaring land prices, growth management concerns, tightening credit, the saving and loan scandals and the recessionary economy have all contributed to the continuing slowdown of housing activity in the region. This trend continues during 1993. In 1992, authorizations, which are an indicator of future constuction activity, dropped to their lowest level in more than 25 years.
Over the last several years the pace of new housing growth in the region has been much slower than the pace of population growth. Proportionally, we are gaining more people than houses. At the beginning of 1988 the region was gaining over two new residents for each new unit constructed. By 1994 that ration increased to more than six new persons per housing unit. The result is a significant rise in household size - the number of persons per occupied housing unit. This gain, from 2.672 persons per unit in 1987 to 2.795 in 1993, accounts for an additional 114,000 people. Together, this many people would form the fifth largest city in the region.
As the region continues to grow, it is important for planners, elected officials, businesses and the public to know where the growth will occur. Most future development will be on land which is both vacant and free from physical, environmental and policy constraints. To identify vacant developable land for the Regional Growth Forecasts, SANDAG uses the geographic overlay process depicted in the graphic. The General Plan layer describes what type of development is allowed, such as residential, (HDR, MDR), commercial (GC), or mixed use (MIX). It also identifies some undevelopable land such as parks. The existing land use inventory layer eliminates land which is already developed. Land constrained for physical or environmental reasons such as steep slopes or flood plains is identified in the third layer. The fourth layer includes land set aside for current and future streets and highways. Various geographic boundaries such as cities and major statistical areas comprise the last layer. The result of the overlay is a computer file of vacant developable land by General Plan category and all geographic boundary attributes.
Housing affordability for California and the San Diego region fluctuated more than the United States. During the 1980s, housing became much less affordable in California, especially after 1987 due to high interest rates and an increase in demand for housing units which rapidly inflated housing prices. California's housing affordability decreased 37 percent from 1985 to 1989. The San Diego region's housing affordability decreased 33 percent. During the 1990s, housing affordability increased in all areas due to a decrease in housing prices and interest rates. In the San Diego region, the affordability index increased 39 percent from 1989 to 1991. In 1992, a little over a third of households in the San Diego region were able to purchase a median priced home, compared to 42 percent of the households in the United States during that time.
This map shows the ethnic composition of births by major statistical areas (MSA) for the San Diego region from 1990 to 1993. Non-White (Hispanic, Black, and Asian and Other) births make up over half of the births in three out of seven MSAs: South Suburban has the highest proportion of Hispanic births at 61 percent. Hispanic births make up almost half of all births in the Central (48%) and North County East (45%) MSAs. The Central MSA has the largest proportion of Black births at 14% while Asian neighborhoods in North City contribute to that MSAs highest proportion of Asian and Other births (15%). East Suburban has the largest share of non-Hispanic White births with 69%
All text and graphics are copywritten by SANDAG and cannot be reproduced electronically, or by any other means without permission.
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