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 Boston city
Note: The 2003 American Community Survey universe is limited to the household population and excludes the population living in institutions, college dormitories, and other group quarters.
TABLE 2. SELECTED SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS
  Estimate Lower
Bound
Upper
Bound
SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
Population 3 years and over enrolled in school
154,309
144,862
163,756
Nursery school, preschool
12,625
8,938
16,312
Kindergarten
4,578
1,929
7,227
Elementary school (grades 1-8)
50,298
45,032
55,564
High school grade (grades 9-12)
27,715
22,154
33,276
College or graduate school
59,093
51,228
66,958
 
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
Population 25 years and over
372,697
362,158
383,236
Less than 9th grade
27,602
21,371
33,833
9th to 12th grade, no diploma
28,596
22,249
34,943
High school graduate (including equivalency)
93,436
84,420
102,452
Some college, no degree
51,507
42,831
60,183
Associate degree
14,396
10,521
18,271
Bachelor's degree
88,369
79,566
97,172
Graduate or professional degree
68,791
59,795
77,787
 
Percent high school graduate or higher
84.9
82.7
87.1
Percent bachelor's degree or higher
42.2
39.4
45.0
 
MARITAL STATUS
Males 15 years and over
210,430
202,621
218,239
Never married
100,406
93,356
107,456
Now married, except separated
84,673
76,281
93,065
Separated
5,376
2,406
8,346
Widowed
6,666
3,974
9,358
Divorced
13,309
8,992
17,626
 
Females 15 years and over
235,321
229,250
241,392
Never married
114,799
108,044
121,554
Now married, except separated
74,418
67,827
81,009
Separated
10,120
6,654
13,586
Widowed
17,768
14,175
21,361
Divorced
18,216
13,840
22,592
 
FERTILITY
Number of women 15 to 50 years old who had a birth in the past 12 months
9,040
5,884
12,196
Unmarried women (widowed, divorced, and never married)
3,287
1,511
5,063
Per 1,000 unmarried women
30
14
46
As a percent of all women with a birth
36.4
18.7
54.0
Per 1,000 women 15 to 50 years old
54
35
72
Per 1,000 women 15 to 19 years old
15
0
41
Per 1,000 women 20 to 34 years old
90
52
127
Per 1,000 women 35 to 50 years old
20
8
33
 
GRANDPARENTS
Number of grandparents with own grandchildren under 18 years in households
6,971
4,266
9,676
Responsible for grandchildren
2,200
638
3,762
less than 1 year
410
0
915
1 or 2 years
252
0
715
3 or 4 years
578
3
1,153
5 or more years
960
0
2,185
 
Characteristics of grandparents responsible for own grandchildren under 18 years
Percent who are female
81.0
56.0
100.0
Percent who are married
28.2
0.0
57.1
Percent who are in labor force
61.8
26.7
96.9
Percent who are in poverty
47.0
11.3
82.6
 
VETERAN STATUS
Civilian population 18 years and over
427,596
417,004
438,188
Civilian veterans
25,909
21,560
30,258
 
DISABILITY STATUS OF THE CIVILIAN NONINSTITUTIONALIZED POPULATION
Population 5 to 20 years
95,641
88,117
103,165
With a disability
8,244
5,218
11,270
 
Population 21 to 64 years
355,616
344,053
367,179
With a disability
39,016
31,945
46,087
Percent employed
35.7
26.6
44.9
No disability
316,600
303,952
329,248
Percent employed
77.1
74.4
79.9
 
Population 65 years and over
54,522
51,171
57,873
With a disability
24,560
20,771
28,349
 
RESIDENCE 1 YEAR AGO
Population 1 year and over
530,712
516,310
545,114
Same house
444,292
427,074
461,510
Different house in the U.S.
78,764
66,780
90,748
Same county
51,392
41,419
61,365
Different county
27,372
21,109
33,635
Same state
15,596
10,648
20,544
Different state
11,776
8,365
15,187
Abroad
7,656
3,209
12,103
 
PLACE OF BIRTH, CITIZENSHIP, AND YEAR OF ENTRY
Total population
540,772
525,643
555,901
Native
377,923
360,379
395,467
Born in United States
363,957
346,876
381,038
State of residence
240,569
225,037
256,101
Different state
123,388
110,701
136,075
Born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island areas, or born abroad to American parent(s)
13,966
9,647
18,285
Foreign born
162,849
148,415
177,283
Naturalized citizen
78,484
67,889
89,079
Not a citizen
84,365
71,592
97,138
Entered 1990 or later
88,661
75,252
102,070
Entered before 1990
74,188
65,575
82,801
 
REGION OF BIRTH OF FOREIGN BORN
Foreign-born population with region of birth reported
162,849
148,415
177,283
Europe
29,981
23,529
36,433
Asia
38,924
33,889
43,959
Africa
6,499
2,773
10,225
Oceania
199
0
537
Latin America
83,051
71,579
94,523
Northern America
4,195
2,162
6,228
 
LANGUAGE SPOKEN AT HOME
Population 5 years and over
505,989
492,809
519,169
English only
326,361
310,240
342,482
Language other than English
179,628
162,625
196,631
Speak English less than "very well"
86,353
73,110
99,596
Spanish
78,355
65,192
91,518
Speak English less than "very well"
32,877
23,009
42,745
Other Indo-European languages
61,769
51,522
72,016
Speak English less than "very well"
29,392
22,050
36,734
Asian and Pacific Islander languages
33,385
27,657
39,113
Speak English less than "very well"
21,287
16,234
26,340
Other languages
6,119
3,096
9,142
Speak English less than "very well"
2,797
411
5,183
 
ANCESTRY (TOTAL REPORTED)
Total Population
540,772
525,643
555,901
Arab
7,727
3,023
12,431
Czech
665
31
1,299
Danish
569
2
1,136
Dutch
1,802
712
2,892
English
24,490
18,272
30,708
French (except Basque)
7,601
4,887
10,315
French Canadian
4,602
2,684
6,520
German
26,061
19,049
33,073
Greek
3,879
1,312
6,446
Hungarian
827
0
1,919
Irish
82,943
72,682
93,204
Italian
51,661
43,276
60,046
Lithuanian
3,642
1,191
6,093
Norwegian
1,035
291
1,779
Polish
13,250
9,012
17,488
Portuguese
2,546
1,059
4,033
Russian
9,447
5,916
12,978
Scotch-Irish
6,534
2,521
10,547
Scottish
6,295
3,168
9,422
Slovak
0
0
474
Subsaharan African
13,522
7,649
19,395
Swedish
5,098
2,820
7,376
Swiss
1,133
246
2,020
Ukrainian
2,802
690
4,914
United States or American
25,359
17,084
33,634
Welsh
1,142
100
2,184
West Indian (excluding Hispanic origin groups)
63,935
53,945
73,925
 
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Boston city
  Demographic - Table 1
  Social - Table 2
  Economic - Table 3
  Housing - Table 4
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See footnotes below.

Footnotes

The 2003 American Community Survey universe is limited to the household population and excludes the population living in institutions, college dormitories, and other group quarters. Data are based on a sample and are subject to sampling variability. The degree of uncertainty for an estimate is represented through the use of a confidence interval. The confidence interval computed here is a 90 percent confidence interval and can be interpreted roughly as providing 90 percent certainty that the true number falls between the lower and upper bounds.

Ancestry listed in this table refers to the total number of reports; for example, the estimate given for Russian represents the number of people who listed Russian as either their first or second ancestry. This table lists only the largest ancestry groups; see the Detailed Tables for more categories. Race and Hispanic origin groups are not included in this table because official data for those groups come from the Race and Hispanic origin questions rather than the ancestry question (see Table 1).

1. An '*' entry in the lower and upper bound columns indicates that too few sample observations were available to compute a standard error and thus the lower and upper bounds. A statistical test is not appropriate.
2. An '**' entry in the lower and upper bound columns indicates that no sample observations were available to compute a standard error and thus the lower and upper bounds. A statistical test is not appropriate.
3. An '-' entry in the estimate column indicates that no sample observations were available to compute an estimate.
4. An '-' following a median estimate means the median falls in the lowest interval of an open-ended distribution.
5. An '+' following a median estimate means the median falls in the upper interval of an open-ended distribution.
6. An '***' entry in the lower and upper bound columns indicates that the median falls in the lowest interval or upper interval of an open-ended distribution. A statistical test is not appropriate.
7. An '*****' entry in the lower and upper bound columns indicates that the estimate is controlled. A statistical test is not appropriate.
8. An 'N' entry in the estimate, lower bound, and upper bound columns indicates that data for this geographic area cannot be displayed because the number of sample cases is too small.

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Source: U.S. Census Bureau  |  American Community Survey Office  |  Page Last Modified: August 24, 2007