HANCOCK COUNTY – According to recently released data from the 2020 U.S. Census, Hancock County’s population has grown 14.1% over the past 10 years. This means that the county’s population grew almost three times faster than the state as a whole.

Of Indiana’s 92 counties, Hancock County has been the fifth fastest growing in the past decade. All of the first five counties are in the Indianapolis metro area. The greatest growth was recorded in Hamilton County, with an increase of 26.5%, followed by Boone County with 25%. Hendricks County increased by 20.2% and Johnson County by 15.8%.

Hancock County, with 79,840 residents, is the 22nd most populous county in the state. It has added 9,838 residents since 2010, according to census figures. Neighboring Marion County remains the most populous in the state, with 977,203 residents, an increase of 8% since 2010. Lake County, Allen County, Hamilton County and St. Joseph County complete the top five.

The data is contained in a wealth of information collected in 2020 during the regular decennial census. The first release of information arrived earlier this week. More data will be released by the Census Bureau as it is compiled. The information will be used to distribute seats in Congress; appears in the formulas for disbursing funds in more than 100 federal programs; and help redraw electoral boundaries based on changes in population. The data will be studied for years by businesses, governments and other entities eager to learn more about their communities.

Statewide, Indiana saw its population grow, but not enough to grant the state an additional seat in Congress. The state gained more than 300,000 new residents from 2010 to 2020 for a 4.7% increase in population.

Despite the state’s growth, 49 of Indiana’s counties have seen their populations decline over the past 10 years. Most of them were rural counties.

The state also saw a 4.6% increase in available housing over the same period, keeping pace with population growth. Of these units, 8.7% are currently vacant.

Growth in the western part of the county has largely driven population growth, especially in the Mt. Comfort/McCordsville/Fortville area, which has seen a high number of industrial and residential developments that have caused negative reactions from the share of residents due to growth. .

Disaggregated statistics beyond the county level will be released later this year, but estimates of each municipality’s growth can be made based on their 2019 population estimates.

McCordsville’s population is estimated to have increased by 45.9% from 2010 to 2019, according to data released by STATS Indiana. It is one of the fastest growing communities in the state.

Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation, which includes students from Fortville and McCordsville, has taken steps to prepare for what it expects will be a significant increase in student population over the next 10 years, with increased enrollment of about 100 students in 2020. It is now vying with Greenfield-Central, long the county’s largest school district, for that distinction.

In New Palestine, City Manager Jim Robinson said the city approved permits for 145 single-family homes in 2021. That’s a sign of rapid growth, even beyond what will be captured by the census; last year, the city approved 53. The city is estimated to have grown 21.3% in 2019, according to STATS Indiana, a database maintained by Indiana University.

The estimated growth for Fortville in 2019 was 6.1%. Fortville city planner Adam Zaklikowsi said the city issued permits to build 100 single-family homes in 2020 and 54 so far in 2021.

Greenfield’s estimated growth in 2019 was 10.9% since 2010. Mayor Chuck Fewell said he hoped census results would show the town’s population had passed 26,000. The 2019 estimate put the city’s population at just over 23,000.

Greenfield has approved 466 permits for homes so far in 2021. The total number of permits approved, including for businesses, is 721. Fewell said he expects growth in Greenfield to continue , including the addition of more restaurants, retail stores and industrial buildings.

“We are able to grow because we have the land, and as long as we have it, we will continue to grow,” Fewell said.

The town of Cumberland, on the border of Hancock and Marion counties, is estimated to have grown 12.6%. The towns of Shirley and Wilkinson are estimated to have increased by 3.9% and decreased by 1.3% respectively.

Demography

Like Indiana as a whole, Hancock County still has a substantial majority of white residents. The county’s population is 89.8% white, while the state’s is 77.2% white. Three percent of Hancock County residents are black, while 5% said they are multiracial; the other races each totaled less than a percentage point.

Hancock County now has 2,393 black residents. In 2010, the black population was 1,452.

Following the national trend, the number of residents who identified their race as only Caucasian has declined since 2010. While Hancock County’s white population has increased in absolute numbers, the share of white residents has decreased by 95.2 %.

This change was primarily due locally to an increase in the number of people identifying as two or more races. In 2010, only 1.2% of respondents identified as multiracial; this population has increased over the last 10 years by more than 3,000 people and by more than 350%.

In Indiana as a whole, the percentage of white residents decreased by 4.1%. The percentage of statewide residents identifying as multiracial increased by 241%. This trend was true across the country, with multiracial residents rising from 2.9% of the population in 2010 to 10.2% in 2020.

While the growing number of multiracial Americans is undoubtedly due in part to a higher number of children born to parents of different races, it could also be due in part to a change in the way people describe themselves. The 2020 census for the first time included a “write-in” option that allowed people to describe their racial identity in more detail.

“We are confident that the differences in the overall racial distributions are largely due to improvements in the design of the two separate questions for collecting and processing racial data as well as some demographic changes over the past 10 years” , the Census Bureau said on its website. .

The percentage of Hancock County residents reporting Hispanic origin, which is a separate issue from race, also increased from 1.7% in 2010 to 2.8% in 2020. Hancock County’s population of people who identify as Hispanic grew from 1,216 in 2010 to 2,202 in 2020.

In Indiana as a whole, the increase went from 6% to 8.2%.

The Census Bureau also released a “Racial and Ethnic Diversity Index” which compares the relative racial diversity of state populations. The index measures the likelihood that two randomly selected people in a state are of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. For Indiana, that number is 41.3%. This shows that Indiana is less diverse than neighboring Illinois, which has a diversity index of 60.3%, but more diverse than Kentucky, which has a 32.8% index.

According to census data on the age of the population, 23.5% of Indiana residents are under the age of 18. This makes it the 11th youngest state in the country. Hancock County’s population was similar to the state average, with 23.8% residents under the age of 18.

The age of the state’s population, like the country as a whole, has increased since 2010. The percentage of Indiana’s population age 18 or older has increased by 6.5%. In Hancock County, it rose 2.4%.

Due to Hancock County’s overall growth, its population of adults and children has increased. However, the adult population increased by 17.7% while the child population only increased by 3.6%. Other fast-growing counties, including Hamilton and Boone, also saw an increasing population over the age of 18.

More census data, including local data broken down beyond the county level, will be released later in the fall.

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79,840 – the total population of Hancock County as of the 2020 U.S. Census

14.1% – Hancock County’s growth percentage over the past ten years

4.7% – the percentage growth that the state of Indiana as a whole has seen since 2010

89.8% – the percentage of Hancock County census respondents who listed their race as only white

23.8% – the percentage of county residents under the age of 18

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