The findings of the annual Santa Cruz County Community Assessment Project were released last week by The United Way of Santa Cruz County. The study this year was generally good news, showing a healthier community by a number of standards.
Amidst the good news, however, were the findings that unemployment lags behind the national recovery, the percentage of Santa Cruz County residents in poverty is growing, and property crimes are increasing.
Here are some of the major findings of the study.
•Median family income increased to $77,255 in 2015, higher than both California and the United States.
•The unemployment rate has decreased from a high of 13.3 percent in 2010 to 7.5 percent in 2015, still higher than the national rate.
• The percentage of the population living in poverty has increased from a low of 13.4 percent in 2012 to 16.1 percent in 2015, higher than California at 15.3 percent.
• One-third of third graders met or exceeded grade standards in English language arts/literacy in 2014-15, a similar percentage for the mathematics test scores.
• Gains continue to be made in high school graduation rates in the county, with an overall rate of 87.4 percent in 2014-15.
• The adolescent birth rate has declined 51 percent, from 30.2 per 1,000 adolescents (ages 15-19) in 2010 to 14.9 in 2015.
• The total crime rate is 38.4 per 1,000 residents; violent crime has seen a decline over the past five years (2010 to 2015) to 4.3 per 1,000 residents, while property crime has increased to 33.9 per 1,000.
• The incidence of gang-related cases in South County decreased from 75.2 percent in 2013 to 57.2 percent in 2015; North County has seen an increase from 24.8 percent to 41.8 percent over this same period.
• The rate of substantiated cases of child abuse per 1,000 children (ages 0-17) has decreased from 10.6 in 2011 to 6.7 in 2015; lower than California, at 8.5 in 2015.
