Census & Demographic Info

Here are some of the census and demographic sites:

• QuickFacts about Bloomington
• Social and Economic characteristics
• Nearly 10% more women than men, and we can prove it
• By the way, the average commute time in Bloomington is 17 minutes.
• Compare Bloomington demographics to the state of Indiana as a whole.

As of 2000, there were 69,291 people, 10,454 families and 26,468 households in the city with a population density of 3,500 people per square mile.
The city has an incredibly culturally diverse population, but is, overall, pretty WASPy.

White: 87%
African American: 4.2%
Native American: .3%
Hispanic/Latino: 2.5%
Asian: 5.3%
Pacific Islanders: 1.1%
Again, this information is from 2000, and changing.

Incomes cover a broad range – Indiana's richest man lives here in an unassumingly modest house a few blocks south of the IU campus. The student population skews a bunch of summary information about income. For instance, 30% of the population is below the poverty line, which includes students with no independent income or just a part-time job. The median household income was $25,377. Median income for a family was $50,054. Per capita income: $16,481. The average household size was 2.09 and the average family size was 2.76. There are 7% more women than men.

Bloomington government is pretty-much run by Democrats. The mayor has been a Dem since 1972. The city and county government are in Democratic Party hands. The Republican Party is very active and continues to work hard for some time at bat. A number of county officials are Republicans.

The rest of Indiana sometimes views Bloomington with a variety of contempt and envy. Bloomington is the cultural capital of Indiana, but many Indianapolis residents would not agree. It is certainly the most liberal city in the state. A lot of people considering Bloomington as a potential home have trouble getting past the Farm/Speedway rep of the state as a whole. Bloomington might have more in common with New York City than Evansville.

Cost of Living

Bloomington fares quite well in cost of living comparison with other cities. For instance 31% cheaper than Chicago. 7% cheaper than Durham, NC, 53% cheaper than San Francisco, 47% cheaper than Cambridge, Massachusetts, on and on.
In the interests of fairness, we must point out that Bloomington is 11% more expansive than Rochester, NY and 9% more expensive than Des Moines, IA.

Usually, the biggest differences in cost of living between Bloomington and other cities is the cost of housing.

Compare the cost of living of your city with Bloomington using this calculator.

Crime is relatively low too - our level of crime or "Crime Index" is just 51% of the national average (that's good). Bloomington's air quality index is 11% higher than average (that's good too). Here are a bunch more city comparison statistics.

For another broad overview of Bloomington see CompareBloomington.org.

Brian Lappin's Bloomington Real Estate Website | If you have a suggestion for this site, please email Brian Lappin