“Young adults – ages 20-34 – are in short supply on Bainbridge Island. And the youngest of that group – those 20 to 24 – might qualify for endangered-species status.The reason, it appears, is not entirely economic. Rather, it’s the absence of habitat. Young adults, it seems, go where rental housing is plentiful, and avoid places like Bainbridge where it is not.That information emerges from new demographic data recently released by the Census Bureau, giving more detail about the 20,308 residents of Bainbridge counted in the 2000 census.The median age of islanders as of the 2000 census was 43.0 – almost eight years older than the state and national median age, both of which is 35.3. The striking fact is not that islanders are older, but rather, the age brackets where the differences show up. Bainbridge does not have a shortage of children. In fact, the proportion of islanders under 18 – 26.7 percent – is slightly higher than the under-18 share of the state and national population, which are identical at 25.7 percent.Nor is the island’s higher age number completely attributable to graying. The 62-and-over segment of the island population is 15.1 percent, somewhat higher than the statewide figure of 13.3 percent but barely above the national figure of 14.7 percent.And oddly, the group in the demographic middle doesn’t distinguish Bainbridge from many other places. Adults 35-44 constitute 16.8 percent of the island population, just slightly above the Washington number of 16.5 percent and the national figure of 16.0 percent.The differences come at the ends of the work-life spectrum. Adults between 45 and 60 make up a full 28.8 percent of island population, compared to 19.2 percent of the Washington population and 18.2 percent of the national number.TwentynothingsWhat Bainbridge Island conspicuously lacks is younger adults. The 25-34 age cohort makes up 14.2 percent of the national population and 14.3 percent of the state population, but only 6.9 percent of the Bainbridge Island population.And the numbers for those ages 20-24 are even more extreme. That group comprises 6.7 percent of all Americans, 6.6 percent of the state’s residents, but a minuscule 1.9 percent of the island.Overall, only 8.8 percent of the island’s population is between ages 20 and 34, less than half of the statewide and national total of 20.9 percent of the state and national population made up of young adults.Housing trendsInitially, it’s tempting to conclude that the scarcity of 20-34-year-olds on Bainbridge is a matter of economics – it’s hard for younger folks to afford a home on the island. Some support for that notion comes from the fact that the 20-34 group makes up 8.7 percent of Mercer Island’s population and 10.3 percent of Vashon Island’s.While economics may be the underlying issue, the new census figures suggest that it’s not simply a matter of home prices. In Bellevue and Redmond, where home prices are equal to or greater than those on Bainbridge, the 20-34 age group numbers, respectively, are 21.8 percent and 28.1 percent of the population.What may explain why young adults seemingly throng to the Eastside but avoid the islands is the availability of rentals.Census data show that in Bellevue, 38.5 percent of total housing units are rentals, and in Redmond, the number is a whopping 44.9 percent. On Bainbridge, by comparison, rentals make up only 21.7 percent of dwellings, similar to the 19.5 percent figure for Mercer Island and the 20.3 percent figure for Vashon.Another possible explanation for the dearth of young adults on Bainbridge is the rather tame (to put matters mildly) social scene for the young and restless. Yet a comparison to other Kitsap County cities suggests that the availability of rentals is more important. In rockin’ Poulsbo, where 41.8 percent of the dwellings are rentals, the 20-34 group makes up 17.5 percent of the population. And in Silverdale, with 47.9 percent rentals, the 20-34 age group jumps to 23.9 percent.The scarcity of rentals on Bainbridge was noted in the Bainbridge Island Comprehensive Plan, which called for creation of 400 new multi-family rental units between 1992 and 2002. What has in fact occurred during those years, though, is the reverse of what the plan sought – no new rental complexes have been built, and several that existed in 1992 have been or are being converted to condominiums.The census information also shows that in comparison to the nation and the State of Washington as a whole, Bainbridge is:* Whiter – 93 percent of islanders are white, including 2.2 percent Latino, compared to the national figure of 75 percent white (12.5 of which is Latino) and the state figure of 82 percent white (7.5 percent of which is Latino). The Island’s largest minority group is Asians, at 4 percent of the population. * More traditional – Nationwide, only 23.5 percent of households consist of a married couple and one or more children under 18. For the state, the comparable figure is an almost-identical 23.8 percent. But the Bainbridge number is 30.8 percent.* More married – On Bainbridge Island, 63.1 percent of residents live as married couples, compared to 52 percent statewide and 51.7 percent nationally.* More likely to own a home – In the country as a whole, two-thirds of the housing units are owner-occupied. In Washington, that number is very slightly lower, at 64.6 percent. But as an obvious flip-side to the paucity of island rentals, 78.3 percent of Bainbridge homes are owner-occupied.The new round of demographic data is available online at www.census2000.org. “