A STATE of CHANGE
CT’s child population shrinking, increasingly diverse
The number of children living in Connecticut dropped significantly over the past decade, while the racial and ethnic makeup of the under-18 crowd grew increasingly diverse, according to new census data that shows how future generations may reshape the state’s demographics, bringing sweeping changes from the classroom to the workforce in the years to come.
Once-in-a-decade census data released Thursday show the total number of children under 18 fell by 10 percent
between 2010 and 2020, even as the state’s overall population grew by a modest 1 percent.
The sharp decline in the state’s child population was driven by a drop in the number of white children living in the state, which declined by 10 percent.
For the first time, the data shows, children of color now account for a majority of people under 18 in Connecticut. At 61 percent in 2010, white children easily made up the majority a decade ago.
Much of the shift is attributable to growth in the Hispanic population. In 2010, one in five children in Connecticut were Hispanic or Latino. By 2020, one in four children were Hispanic or Latino.
Frederick Velez, national director of civic engagement at the New Yorkbased Hispanic Federation, said the change was likely due to working-age Hispanic parents and families choosing to move to Connecticut, especially from New York City.
Velez pointed to significant growth in Fairfield County, closest to New York City, which saw the greatest population increase of any county in the state, including an increase of 50,000 more Hispanic and Latino residents over the past decade, including 14,000 children.
To accommodate those new residents, schools, government agencies, and private industry must make greater strides to attract and hire people with shared backgrounds, Velez said. And more resources need to be made available in Spanish and other languages, Velez said.
Organizations need to make greater efforts to staff “with members of the Latino community who live in those counties and understand the needs, and understand how to communicate,” he said.
Mark Abraham, executive director at DataHaven, a nonprofit data cooperative, said Connecticut’s growth patterns over recent decades have been driven by migration. People tend to move to Connecticut from large metro areas, he said, and cities like New York are gateways for immigrants arriving in the U.S. Abraham said he believes much of the growth in Hispanic and Latino populations in Connecticut may be attributed to second-generation immigrants moving to the state.
“There’s sort of a change in population due to the history of migration in the tri-state area,” Abraham said.
Because the adult Asian and Hispanic or Latino populations are increasing so quickly, and those groups tend to be younger than white and Black populations, Abraham said even more of the state’s under-18 population are expected to be children of color in the decades ahead.
Hispanic and Latino children were the biggest contributors to growth in diversity in the last 10 years, followed by Asian children, a population that grew by 12 percent. The population of multiracial children climbed 74 percent, while the number of Black children decreased by 8 percent.
The changes were more pronounced in some parts of the state than others.
In Danbury, one of the state’s largest towns, the total number of white children fell by 34 percent between 2010 and 2020. At the same time, the population of Hispanic children increased by 47 percent, and the number of multiracial children more than doubled.
In Madison, on the coast, the population of children declined by 26 percent, driven by significant drops in the number of white minors.
The trends in Connecticut generally aligned with changes seen at the national level. Nationwide, the new census data reflected a country that is becoming more diverse in part due to the white population shrinking for the first time since census measurements began 230 years ago.
“The U.S. population is much more multiracial and more racially and ethnically diverse than what we measured in the past,” Nicholas Jones, a director of race ethnicity research and outreach at the Census Bureau, told reporters Thursday.
Despite changing demographics and increasing diversity, white children still make up 50 percent of Connecticut’s under-18 crowd and 75 percent of the state’s adults. In the simplest terms, white residents are dying at a faster rate than they’re having kids, according to the University of Wisconsin. Baby Boomers are growing older, meanwhile, pushing Connecticut’s average age upward in general.
The overall downward trend in the number of children in Connecticut will come as little surprise to some: For instance, data from the state Department of Education shows overall enrollment in public schools dropped by about 26,000 in the last five years, even as enrollment among Hispanic children climbed by about 13,000.
The nation has also seen unprecedentedly low birth rates in recent years, and Connecticut had one of the lowest birth rates in the country in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There may have been even fewer births this year. The Brookings Institute, a think tank, estimated a dropoff in births of about 300,000 nationwide in 2021 following the COVID-19 outbreak as families delayed their decisions to have kids.