Incomes, Costs Up in San Diego : Census: 1990 data also show that more than one in 10 residents lives below the poverty level.

San Diego County residents make more money, are better educated and are more likely to be employed--especially mothers--than 10 years ago, according to 1990 U.S. Census figures released today.

At the same time, housing is less affordable, costing a bigger portion of both homeowners’ and renters’ incomes; more than one in 10 residents lives below the poverty level, and more than half the female-headed households with preschool children are poverty stricken.

The census also found that one in four county residents speaks a language other than English at home, significantly more than 10 years ago. But statewide, people are even less likely to speak English in their own home.

The findings come from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s 1990 Census, which was criticized at the time for likely undercounting migrants and homeless people.

The Department of Commerce has been releasing various findings from the Census over time, and today’s figures focus on selected social characteristics in California and its five largest cities. The statistics reflect educational attainment, roots, child-bearing patterns, employment, income and housing.

Statewide, the census found that prosperity and poverty grew side by side in California during the 1980s, a decade in which the gap between wealth and want can be measured by rising incomes, especially among the state’s richest residents, and by the growing number of children living below the poverty line.

The state’s median household income grew by 17% during the last decade, placing it at $35,798, or 17% higher than the nation’s median household income. Around the state, the number of households making $75,000 or more annually has grown by 800%.

Statewide, the number of related children under 18 living below the poverty line, which is $12,674 annually for a family of four, grew by 41%. That adds up to 1.3 million children living in poverty in the state. The number of poor families increased by 28% and poor families with female heads of household by 32%. The number of poor elderly people in California increased by 21% to over 228,000. During the decade, the state’s population, now 29,760,021, grew by 26%.

Previously released census data show that San Diego County’s population increased 34% during the 1980s to nearly 2.5 million, and that while the county remains predominantly non-Hispanic white--65.4%--Hispanics now account for 20.4% of the local population base.

The just-released data continue to reflect that ethnic diversity, especially in terms of language.

Compared with 10 years ago, an increasing percentage of county residents feel uncomfortable with the English language.

About 11% of San Diego County residents say they don’t speak English “very well,” nearly three times the 4% who said that 10 years earlier. But that’s still a smaller proportion of residents than those statewide--16%--who say they don’t speak English “very well.”

Countywide, 25% of the people 5 or older speak a language other than English when they’re in their own home, compared with 18% in 1980. Nearly one in eight of the county’s residents, 16%, speak Spanish at home, and about half of those say they do not speak English “very well.”

An Asian or Pacific Island language is spoken at home among 6% of the county’s residents and about half of them say they don’t speak English “very well.”

UC San Diego sociologist Richard Madsen said San Diegans likely would be surprised by the high percentage of non-English speaking residents.

“In an East Coast city like New York, you can get on a subway and come into contact with all sorts of different people, but that doesn’t happen in Southern California,” Madsen said.

“Here, and especially in San Diego, people who don’t primarily speak English are out of sight, out of mind. The people who don’t speak English live in areas that are separate from the people with more money, more power, more privilege.”

The growing number of people who have trouble with English reflects new immigrants who are finding it increasingly difficult to learn the language because fewer low-cost classes are offered, he said, adding, “This is a dynamic that can lead to an alienated underclass.”

The county tends to have more relative newcomers than the state as a whole.

The newest figures show that 38% of the county’s residents had lived in the same house for five years before the census, compared with 44% statewide. Thirty-four percent of county residents lived somewhere else in the county in ‘85, and 28% lived outside of the county and moved here since 1985.

Among U.S. natives in the county, 47% were born in California, compared with 59% California natives statewide.

Yet San Diego County is less of a melting pot than the state as a whole; locally, nearly one-in-five residents--17%--are foreign-born, while statewide, 22% were born outside the country.

The 1990 Census data show that San Diego County has grown more educated during the past 10 years. High school graduates make up more than four out of five--82%--of the county residents over the age of 25, compared to 76% 10 years ago. And one in four residents--25%--has at least a college bachelor’s degree, compared with 21% in 1980. By both high school and college measures, San Diego residents have gone further in school than residents statewide.

But if the county’s residents have more schooling than Californians in general, they’re not necessarily cashing in on it.

Both per-person and household incomes are lower in the county than statewide. The per capita income in San Diego County is $16,220 a year, about $200 less than statewide, while the median household income in the county is $35,022, about $750 less than Californians in general.

Still, San Diego County’s residents have fattened their wallets over the past 10 years, even outpacing the rate of inflation and making more money than ever. After adjusting for inflation to reflect 1989 dollars, San Diego County’s per capita income in 1980 was $13,341, and the median household income 10 years ago was $28,670.

County incomes shot up at a higher rate than those statewide, the census data show.

But Raford Boddy, a San Diego State University economist, warned that those figures might look rosier than reality. The figure the U.S. Commerce Dept. used to adjust for inflation in California might be too low for San Diego, where Boddy said inflation has been worse because of the local cost of housing and transportation.

“The overall real gain for San Diego is actually a little less,” he said.

The proportion of county residents who were in the labor force increased to 68% in 1990, compared with 64% in 1980.

Particularly telling were figures on mothers at work.

In 1980, less than half of all mothers with children younger than 6 worked outside the home--45%. By 1990, the percentage had shot up to well over half--56%. Among mothers of children between the ages of 6 and 17, 73% worked outside the home.

Yet many of those women and their children live in poverty, especially single mothers. Among San Diego County women who head households and have preschool-age children, more than half--52%--are living below poverty level.

Fewer than half the county’s children have a parent who stays at home with them. The census figures show that in 61% of the families with minor children, each parent in the family was in the labor force.

Despite the increased incomes and increased numbers of people working, housing became less affordable for San Diego County residents during the 1980s. Both homeowners and renters are seeing a bigger portion of their paychecks go to the monthly mortgage or rent payment.

The increase in costs has hit homeowners more than renters--but it is still the renters who are shelling out bigger percentages of their income each month for housing.

As an indicator, the census looked at people who spend 35% or more of their household income for mortgage or rent--generally considered an uncomfortably high percentage.

About 22% of homeowners paid that much for housing, compared with 38% of the renters.

Ten years ago, 17% of the homeowners and 36% of the renters paid more than 35% of their household income to keep a roof over their heads.

Some other census findings:

* Of the nearly million housing units in San Diego County, 26% are at least 40 years old. Conversely, 30% of the housing units have been built in the past 10 years.

* Nearly 5,000 housing units lack “complete plumbing facilities.”

* Condominiums make up 12% of the county’s housing stock.

* While 62% of homes are heated by a gas-powered furnace, more than 15,000 housing units, or nearly 2% of the total, rely only on wood--and 9,300 units are not heated, period.

* More than 20,000 homes have no telephone.

* About 70,000 households are living without a vehicle. On the other hand, 171,000 households, or 19%, boast three or more vehicles.

* The median monthly housing mortgage payment in San Diego County is $1,132; the median monthly rent check totals $611. By comparison, homeowners statewide pay a little less--$1,077-- in monthly mortgage payments, but California renters as a whole pay a little more, $620.

* About 11% of the county’s households exist below poverty level--about the same as 10 years ago, and about 8% receive public assistance income, again about the same as 10 years ago. Statewide, 12.5% of the households are below poverty level and 9% of the households receive public assistance.

* Of the county’s 1.2 million residents who work, 71% drive alone to work--up from 64% who drove alone to work in 1980. In 1990, 14% of the commuters car-pooled, compared with 17% the decade earlier.

The new census data, collected before the recession took hold, may not adequately reflect the degree of economic hardship being experienced by much of the state’s population. But it does show a widening divide between the richest and poorest residents in a state with a proud history of economic opportunity.

Some of the sharpest differences were evident in South Los Angeles--the focal point of the recent rioting--where economic gains were minuscule at best and far behind the rest of the county.

Since median incomes rose, at least a little, at all levels of society, experts taking their first look at the new census data said they suspect that much of the rise in poverty is a result of the huge influx of immigrants, more than 3.2 million, many of whom are poor and entered the state during the past decade.

“My guess is . . . that where the population increase has been greatest, you will find much of the increase in poverty,” said J. Eugene Grigsby, an associate professor of Urban Planning and acting director of the Center for Afro-American Studies at UCLA. I would think that the rate of increase will be among Hispanics, followed by Cambodian and Vietnamese and, then, blacks.”

Across the state, the population boom helped generate a crisis in affordable housing, with rents going up 38% during the decade and monthly homeowner costs rising 65%. Both rents and homeowner costs were pushed up well beyond the national median. By 1990, the median rent in California was $620, versus a $424 national median. For California homeowners, the monthly median was $1,077, compared with $702 nationwide. In Los Angeles city and county, median costs for renters and owners were slightly higher than statewide median costs.

But for renters across California, what has pinched hardest has been the proportion of their income going to monthly rent. By 1990, close to half of all tenants in the state were paying more than 30% of their household income in rent. In the city of Los Angeles, just under 40% of renters were devoting more than 35% of their income to rent.

Overall, the census found that the state’s labor force expanded from 18.1 million to 22.8 million, with the number of people over 16 employed growing from 64% to 67%. The census found close to the same rate of employment in the city and county of Los Angeles.

The proportion of working women with children younger than 6 in the state grew from 46% to nearly 56%, with roughly similar percentages applying to the city and county. In California, the proportion of people 25 or older who have at least a high school diploma grew to 76%. But in the city of Los Angeles, the figure declined from 69% to 67% of the population 25 or older.

Statewide, 23.4% of residents 25 or older have college degrees, up from 20% in 1980. The census reported virtually the same percentage of college graduates for Los Angeles, up 4% in the county and 3% in the city.

The census found that there are more than 4.4 million people over 25 who don’t have high school diplomas, more than half of them lacking even a ninth-grade education. The 4.4 million represent about 24% of the state’s over-25 population and is actually slightly lower than the proportion of adults who did not have high school diplomas in 1980. The rate of adults without diplomas was higher in both the city and county of Los Angeles, where the figure hovered around 30%--no change over the past 10 years.

Among California’s teen-agers, the census found that 14% of all 16- to 19-year-olds were not in school, and more than half of those were not working. In Los Angeles County, 17% of young people in that age bracket were not in school and, again, more them half of them not working. That means that across the county, about 50,000 16- to 19-year-olds are neither working nor attending school, about 2,000 more than in 1980.

Times staff writer Frank Clifford contributed to this story.

San Diego County Snapshot-1990 New figures released from the 1990 Census portray an educated San Diego County, one where people are wealthier-yes, even after inflation-than they were 10 years before. But it is also a county where many children are living in poverty and many residents are struggling with English. Education San Diego County residents are more educated than Californians as a whole, but they make less money. High School or More San Diego County: 82% Calif.: 76% Bachelor’s Degree or More San Diego County: 25% Calif.: 23% Income Income rose-even when adjusted for inflation Median Household Income 1990: $35,022 1980: $28,670 (in 1990 dollars) Median Family Income 1990: $39,798 1980: $34,030 (in 1990 dollars) Per Capital Income 1990: $16,220 1980: $13,341 (in 1990 dollars) Poverty More than one in 10 San Diegans lives in poverty. The numbers leap to more than half for female-headed households with young children. % Below Poverty Level General population: 11% Elderly: 6% Families: 8% Families with minor children: 13% Families with children younger than 5: 16% Female householder families: 26% Female householder families with minor children: 35% Female householder families with child under 5: 52% Language Speak Foreign Language in the Home San Diego County: 25% Calif.: 31% Speak Spanish in the Home San Diego County: 16% Calif.: 20% Do Not Speak English Well San Diego County: 11% Calif.: 15% Foreign Born San Diego County: 17% Calif.: 22% Housing Home Owners Spend 35% or more of income on housing payments 1990: 22% 1980: 17% Spend less than 20% of income on housing payments 1990: 44% 1980: 55% Renters Spend 35% or more of income on housing payments 1990: 38% 1980: 36% Spend less than 20% of income on housing payments 1990: 21% 1980: 26% New to County (since 1985) Different County in California: 9% Different State: 14% Different Country: 5% Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 1990 Census Related Stories: B1