Ferguson Demographics by the Numbers

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Ferguson, Mo., has a population of 21,203, according to the U.S. Census American Fact Finder database. Just over 29% of the residents are white, and nearly 68% are black or African American. That is the beginning of a look at Ferguson by the numbers, at least according to federal government data.

The largest groups by age are 15 to 19 years old (4.2%), 45 to 49 (4.1%) and 50 to 54 (4.4%). Only 4.2% are 65 and over, according to data from 2010.

Only 1.5% of households have income and benefits over $200,000. Against the same measurement, 0.8% make between $150,000 and $199,999. At the other end of the spectrum, households with incomes and benefits of under $10,000 represent 13.1% by the same yardstick. The median household income in Ferguson is $38,685. In the United States as a whole, that figure is just below $52,000.

People who work in the educational services, social assistance and health care fields make up 27.5% of those employed. Following that, the second largest group works in the retail trade industry (14.9%). A total of 10.7% are government workers. Some 22.1% live in households that had incomes below the poverty line, based on numbers from 2013. And 10% of the housing units in Ferguson are vacant.

A total of 27.8% did not graduate high school. Only 42.0% are high school graduates, while 23.2% have some college or an associate degree. Just 7.0% have a bachelor’s degree or better.

About 32% of houses were built between 1950 and 1959. Another 24.1% were built between 1960 and 1969. Among houses, 50.1% had a value of $50,000 to $99,999. Among those in occupied rental units, 32.2% pay rent between $500 and $749 a month.

All in all, pretty grim.

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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