Moco Map of the Week--Percent Non-family Households by Census Tract

Today's map shows the distribution of non-family households.  According to the census a non-family household is any household headed by a single person or containing multiple people who are not related, married, or in a common law marriage.

30.6% of Montgomery County residents lives in non-family households.  There is, however, considerable variation across the county's census tracts.  The census tract with the lowest percent of non-family households is 7.6%.  The tract with the highest is 74.9%.

So, how does MOCO stack up to the state?  The US as a whole?  Turns out we have fewer non-family households than either Maryland (32.9%) or the US (57.7%).

Several patterns stand out on today's map.  First, the county's non-family households are concentrated along two main roads. The biggest concentration is along I-270, a major interstate and also the county's urban spine.  Non-family households are also concentrated along Columbia Pike/US 29.  Although the Pike isn't as urbanized as the I-270 corridor, it is urbanizing at a steady clip.  These patterns aren't too surprising.  Urban areas tend to have more non-family households than rural areas do. 

Second, there are also high concentrations of non-family households inside the beltway.  In fact, the tract with the highest percentage of non-family households is in the heart of Bethesda, in the Woodmont Triangle area.  74.9% of households in this tract are non-family.  In a lot of ways, this part of Bethesda looks a lot like gentrifying neighborhoods in DC where a flood of millennials have moved in.  However, it is worth noting that the tract (7032.18) with the second highest percentage of non-family households is well north of the beltway.  It contains Leisure World, an age-restricted (i.e. adults only) community.