# Decline of children in some, but not all, parts of Chicago

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2018-10-20

chicago, children-in-city, dc, depaul-university, housing, housing-market, houston, phoenix, real-estate, real-estate-marketing, sun-and-sprawl, sunbelt, uncategorized, urban, urban-kids

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The Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University recently published [this overview](https://fiveyearplandata.housingstudies.org/meeting-1-socioeconomic-factors.html#c3-12) of the “socioeconomic factors affecting demand for housing in Chicago.”

Here is the change in population in the City of Chicago from 1950 to 2016:

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/20fefce3846d4b719ef5ffbebb4326c9.png)

And here is a comparison between Chicago and the five biggest cities in the US. Note the “[sun and sprawl](http://brandondonnelly.com/post/161188483203/follow-the-sun-and-sprawl)” phenomenon. Also note that the list below is for city proper boundaries.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/c5f13851730fe22aa4c7e07e525e9191.png)

One particularly interesting set of stats is the decline of children (population under the age of 18) in the city:

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/313fb003f07644dd06637a720d6c6b97.png)

Since 2010, the city has lost over 40,000 children and teenagers. 

But, if you break it down by neighborhood market type, it is the low-cost and moderate-cost neighborhoods that lost the population. The high-cost neighborhoods were up.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/b29fef6062fe56b14db92607201e6c46.png)

The study posits that the old trend of moving to the suburbs after you have kids may not be for everyone – provided, of course, that you have the means. And it goes beyond Chicago. [DC is predicting a 25% increase in K-12 students](https://www.housingstudies.org/news/blog/some-chicago-neighborhoods-losing-children/) within the District.

For the rest of the charts, [click here](https://fiveyearplandata.housingstudies.org/meeting-1-socioeconomic-factors.html).

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/decline-of-children-in-some,-but-not-all,-parts-of-chicago)*