Profile Demographically, Greene County shares commonalities with the Mid-Hudson Valley as a whole. Yet, there are also stark differences. Most dramatically, nearly seven in ten households in the county have an annual income of less than $50,000. This compares with only about four in ten of Mid-Hudson Valley households that are in this same income bracket.
There has been an increase in the proportion of low income families living in Greene County since 2002. Five years ago, just 36% of county households earned a family income of less than $30,000 a year. Today, 44% of households in Greene County make less than $30,000 annually. This increase in low income households has not occurred at the regional level.
The average household size in Greene County is smaller than the average Mid-Hudson Valley household. It is 2.6 compared with the regional average of 2.8. Five years ago, the average household size in Greene County was 2.7 while the average Mid-Hudson Valley home was larger with 2.9. Among households with children, the average household size in Greene County is 3.8 compared with the regional average of 4.2.
In terms of race, Greene County is more homogenous than the Mid-Hudson region. 91% of Greene County residents are white compared with 83% of the region’s residents. 5% of Greene County residents are Latino compared with one in ten Mid-Hudson Valley residents. 5% of Greene County residents are African American compared with 7% of the region as a whole.
The proportion of college graduates in the county is lower than the proportion who have completed college across the region. Nearly eight in ten Greene County residents do not have a college degree compared with 65% of Mid-Hudson Valley residents as a whole.
Greene County households are less likely to include children than the typical Mid-Hudson Valley household. 37% of Greene County households have at least one child compared with 44% of all households regionally. 13% of Greene County households include a child who is under age five comparable to the regional proportion of 15%. About three in ten Greene County households have children age five to eighteen. This is less than the nearly four in ten of households across the region that include school age children.
Greene County households with children are almost twice as likely to be a low income household or one which is headed by a single parent than the average Mid-Hudson Valley household with children. 39% of Greene County children reside in households where the annual household income is less than $30,000. This compares with 21% of children in the entire Mid-Hudson region. About two in ten Greene County households with children are headed by a single parent compared with 11% of households in the region as a whole.
Greene County has one of the highest rates of households without health insurance in the Mid-Hudson Valley. Nearly three in ten of the county’s households have at least one member who has faced a gap in coverage in the last year, and 16% of households in the county include someone who is currently without coverage. These proportions are similar to the proportions reported in 2002.
Greene County has the largest proportion in the region of households with children who have had to confront a gap in coverage. 23% of all county households with children have at least one child who has had interrupted coverage over the past year compared with 15% of households with children regionally. Greene County also has the highest proportion of currently uninsured children. 12% are without insurance right now compared with 7% in the region as a whole.
The proportion of Greene County’s households with children that have not been able to maintain insurance has not been reduced since 2002. At that time, 21% of all households with children had at least one child who had a gap in coverage, and 10% were uninsured.
