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As of March 2011, the 2010 census results have been released. The data reveal that Boston’s population has grown by 4.8% in the past decade, reaching 617,594 residents in 2010.
Nuestra's review of data provided by the Census Bureau and the Boston Redevelopment Authority indicates that the neighborhoods of Dorchester and Mattapan did not mirror this trend of growth, as both decreased in population by roughly 5%. Roxbury, on the other hand, outpaced Boston overall with a 14.1% increase in inhabitants.
The Roxbury/Dorchester/Mattapan area is home to 185,289 residents in 2010, a community about equal in size to that of ten years ago.
Only 52.5% of Roxbury residents now identify as Black or African-American, a full 9.7% decrease from the year 2000. This change is not due to citywide demographic shifts, as Boston’s Black or African-American residents have constituted a fairly stable quarter of the population over the past decade. The decline was less pronounced in Nuestra’s overall service area, with a 3.5% decrease in Mattapan and 1% decrease in Dorchester. Currently, about half the population identifies as Black or African-American in the three neighborhoods comprising our primary service area.
Since 2000, the Hispanic or Latino population has grown by 4.4% (of overall population) in Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan, now representing 19.1% of the community in these three neighborhoods. Hispanic or Latino growth in Boston overall, by comparison, has been 2.9%, reaching 17.5% of the overall population this year. White residents continue to comprise about 17% of our primary service area’s population in 2010, while Asian residents have remained around 7% of that population.
Boston’s overall housing stock has increased by 8.2% over the course of the past decade. While growth was less pronounced in Dorchester and Mattapan (about 5%), Roxbury exceeded the average rate of increase in neighborhood housing stock (11.9%).
In addition to housing growth, Roxbury enjoyed a 1.6% decrease in vacancies. This distinguished the neighborhood from Boston’s general trend of ascending vacancy rates (2.3%), and the 3.7% vacancy increases in Dorchester and Mattapan. The overall vacancy rate in our primary service area stands around 8%, with a fairly even distribution across neighborhoods.
Our primary service area has aged slightly, with a 5% decrease in the population under the age of 18: about 46,000 youth now reside in Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan.
Foreclosure deeds have risen from 75 in 2000 to 821 in 2010, according to the Foreclosure Trends 2010 Report released by the Department of Neighborhood Development. Of these, an alarming 483 occurred in Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan, indicating a continued crisis in foreclosure in the neighborhoods Nuestra serves. Overall, the 2010 census data reflect a number of challenges similar to those of the past decade, and which Nuestra’s community building work will continue to address.
