Chapter 2: Demographics

Demographics are not destiny.

In our community, as in many metropolitan areas, life within the city limits is often different from life in the suburbs. Demographic, economic, and political differences between Memphis and suburban Shelby County frequently underlie debates regarding taxation, public schools, and other issues.

However we should not let these differences obscure the fact that each of us has a stake in our community’s overall success. This becomes especially apparent when we consider the linked fates of our children. Children in Memphis families and children in suburban families will eventually share responsibility for leading and sustaining the community.

*Please note that throughout the Data Book “suburban Shelby County” refers to areas of the county outside the city limits of Memphis, while “Shelby County” refers to the county as a whole, including Memphis.

Unfortunately, one important difference between Memphis and suburban Shelby County is the disparity in children’s access to positive experiences that promote health, well-being, and future success. Poverty and its related risk factors are much more widespread in Memphis than in outlying areas of

the county. Research has linked early risk to a wide array of negative outcomes, including academic failure, emotional problems, physical health, and adult earnings.^1,2

Certainly, many children thrive in spite of facing these risks. What enables some children to beat the odds while others with similar backgrounds fail to reach their potential?

One well-established finding is that effective parenting can be a protective factor that buffers children from the effects of poverty and other risks. Sensitive, age- appropriate caregiving reduces the biological stress of growing up in adversity. Other protective factors include parental education and high quality child care.³

Each of these protective factors represents an opportunity for our community to create policies that help children thrive. Although this chapter’s demographic profile of Memphis and Shelby County includes some discouraging figures, we believe that the realistic assessment of a problem is the first step toward solving it.

As a community, we have responsibility to promote the well-being of our children. It’s not enough to sit idly by and hope that more children beat the odds. We must do what we can to provide healthy, nurturing, and stable environments for them. The strength and vitality of our community’s future depends on it.

Shelby County has nearly a quarter of a million children.

Of the 246,887 children in Shelby County, approximately 7 in 10 children live within Memphis city limits; the rest live in the outlying suburbs.

Children in Memphis, as a group, differ from suburban children in age, race, and family type.

Memphis has a higher proportion of very young children than suburban Shelby County.

• Memphis has over 48,000 children under five, representing 29 percent of all residents under 18.
• In suburban Shelby County, children under five make up 23 percent.

Racial demographics in Memphis differ from those of Tennessee and the United States.

• 71 percent of children in Memphis are black and 17 percent are white.
• In Shelby County as a whole, the pattern is similar but less pronounced (58 and 29 percent respectively).
• Statewide and nationally, however, the black-white ratio is roughly the opposite of our community.
• For other racial/ethnic groups, patterns in Memphis and Shelby County are similar to state and national patterns.

Memphis children are more likely than their suburban peers to live in single parent families.

• 60 percent of Memphis children live with an unmarried parent.
• 23 percent of children in suburban Shelby County live with an unmarried parent.

Shelby County families with children make less money than families without children.

Family income affects the quality of a child’s home environment. Parents with stable and adequate incomes are better able to provide their children with books, educational toys, enriching activities, and high-quality child care. Children whose families have higher incomes tend to do better in school and show better behavioral and social adjustment.⁴

Low-income parents, in addition to having fewer economic resources, often have fewer social and emotional resources. Compared to middle- class parents, for example, they are at higher risk for stress and poor health. Economic hardship can lead to less parental warmth and responsiveness, which in turn are associated with negative child outcomes.⁵

• Across Shelby County, median income for families without children is almost $14,000 more than for families with children.
• When we consider only families living within Memphis, the gap increases to over $18,000.

Shelby County families pay a larger share of their incomes for rent than in previous years.

Housing is typically the biggest item in a family’s budget. Experts agree that a family should spend no more than about 30 percent of its annual income on housing, but poor and low-income families often pay as much as 50 percent.

Families with children are particularly vulnerable to unaffordable housing: they earn less than other families, but need more space. When less income is left over after paying the rent, parents must make sacrifices that can reduce their children’s quality of life. Too often, these choices include cutting back on necessities like food, clothes, and healthcare.^6,7

Since 2000, more and more families face housing costs that are well above the recommended 30 percent threshold.

The Memphis child poverty rate is nearly double the national rate.

The terms 'poor' and 'in poverty' are applied to families with annual incomes below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) set by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The FPL for a family of four is $22,350.

Poverty endangers children’s healthy development. Poor families experience, on average, more turmoil, violence, and instability than other families. Poor children watch more TV, have fewer books, and are read to less frequently than their better-off peers. They attend lower-quality schools and have poorer nutrition. As early as the first three years of life, they score lower on cognitive measures, and the effects of early poverty often persist into adulthood.^8–11

Shelby County child poverty is largely concentrated in Memphis.

• In Memphis, 39 percent of children live in poverty.
• Nine percent of children in suburban Shelby County live in poverty.
• The national child poverty rate is 21.9 percent (not shown).
• Child poverty has been relatively steady in suburban Shelby County in recent years.
• In Memphis, there has been a slight upward trend.

Over half of Shelby County children face economic hardship.

The Federal Poverty Level (FPL) is an inadequate tool for measuring economic hardship. Grouping families into those above the poverty threshold and those below it underestimates the wide variations in economic distress among families in need.

Not all poor families experience the same types of hardship. Families with incomes just under the poverty line face very different circumstances than families whose incomes fall far short of it.

Similarly, many families have incomes above FPL but still deal with the same difficulties as poor families. Extensive research shows that it takes an income about twice the poverty level for a family to meet its basic needs.

As a result, most researchers distinguish two additional categories: low-income (also called 'near poverty') and extreme poverty. Low-income families have incomes above the FPL but below 200 percent of the FPL. Families with incomes below half of the FPL are in extreme poverty.^12–14

More than half of our community’s children are poor or low-income.

• 30 percent of Shelby County children are living in poverty.
• Of this 30 percent, half are in extreme poverty.
• 23 percent of children in Shelby County live in low-income families.
• Fewer than half of Shelby County’s children are economically secure (at or above 200 percent of the FPL).

Children in poverty often face other risks as well.

Poor children can thrive in spite of their families’ economic adversity, especially if they have the protective benefits of warm and responsive parenting. Too often, however, poverty goes hand in hand with other risks that reduce parents’ ability to provide this buffer. These may include maternal depression, low parental education, and neighborhood crime.

One widely studied risk factor is living in a single-parent family. Single mothers, on average, are younger, have less education, earn lower incomes, and have less social support than married mothers. Conditions like these increase the likelihood of ineffective, inconsistent, and harsh parenting behaviors.^15,16

• In Memphis, 84 percent of children in poverty live in unmarried- parent families.
• Similarly, in suburban Shelby County, 73 percent of poor children live in unmarried-parent families.

Most Shelby County homes do not have children.

• Only 33 percent of households in Memphis have children younger than 18 years present.
• Only 41 percent of households in suburban Shelby County have children.

Families with children are a minority in our community. This is a potential barrier to building and sustaining an effective public voice for children. For instance, supporting investments in child well-being may be a lower priority for adults without children or those whose children have already come of age.¹⁹

The differences between Memphis and suburban Shelby County, many of which have been detailed in this chapter, may represent another barrier. Suburban Shelby County has a higher share of families with children, but it has proportionately fewer African American children, children in poverty, and children in single parent families. These realities tend to isolate middle-class families from families in need and make it difficult to create a shared identity among parents and caregivers throughout our community.²⁰

To overcome these obstacles, we must increase public awareness that what is good for children is good for all of us. Morally, allowing half our children to grow up in or near poverty is incompatible with our ideals of fairness and equal opportunity. Economically, reducing child poverty and its lifelong effects will result in significant public savings by increasing earnings and productivity and decreasing crime and poor health.²¹

Investments in the well-being of our children are investments in our community’s future.