One trip around McKinley Elementarys Annual Worlds Fair will tell you all you need to know about Fairfields shifting population. As families from 21 countries gather in the schools gym, each with young children, you can see what the 2010 Census revealed about Fairfield its getting younger and more racially diverse.
As Antonios Panagiotakis, one of the McKinley booth operators, remarked at the fair, "A lot of people think of Fairfield as very unified. But I think there's a lot of cultural diversity. Just look around you."
The Census Bureau released Connecticuts data from the 2010 count earlier this week. The preliminary numbers show two trends occurring in Fairfield. First, as the Board of Education can tell you when it looks at enrollment figures, Fairfield is becoming a younger town. In 2000, the year of the last Census, 76.3 percent of Fairfield was over the age of 18. Now that percentage is 74.6 percent.
Even more dramatic is the change in Fairfields racial makeup. The percentage who described themselves as white only (meaning, not Latino or Hispanic as well) dropped from 93.6 percent to 88 percent since 2000. Every other racial designation increased its share, most notably Fairfields Asians (now 3.7 percent of the total) and Latinos (now a full 5 percent, up from 2.3 percent in 2000).
Both trends held true across the entire town, in mostly every neighborhood. Only one region (Census tract 603, which covers the area around Lake Mohegan) has a higher over-18 population than in 2000, and only by a margin of less than a percentage point. And each of Fairfields 16 tracts had its white population shrink over the last 10 years, and its Asian, black and Latino populations grow.
Still, some neighborhoods became more diverse than others. Three tracts saw double-digit shifts in the percentage of white residents. All three are located near the Bridgeport border, within McKinleys geographical district. So if the trend continues, Antonios could have even more variety in his company at next years Worlds Fair.
PHOTO: Clockwise, from top left; Angelica Pelaez, Giovanni Panagiotakis, Emmet, and Adriana Kidwell.
What changes have you seen in Fairfield over the last 10 years? Start the conversation in the comments below.
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