{"id":915,"date":"2020-08-03T21:23:39","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T04:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.grantcountytrends.org\/newsletter\/?page_id=915"},"modified":"2020-09-29T20:29:52","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T03:29:52","slug":"list","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.grantcountytrends.org\/newsletter\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog & Update List"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Did you know there are over 150 different community indicators on Grant County Trends<\/strong> - each updated throughout the year? But which ones, and when?<\/p>

This issue of the Grant County Trends Blog<\/strong> lists the most recently updated indicators on the Grant County Trends website.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

This page will be updated and email alerts sent on a quarterly basis. Don't miss an update - subscribe today!<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Recent Updates<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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In PEOPLE<\/strong>:<\/p>

The number of households with internet connections\u00a0in Grant County\u00a0is close to\u00a0a\u00a0maximum.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>

The U.S.\u00a0Census estimated that in 2024,\u00a0nearly 34,300\u00a0county households had some form of internet connection.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a095% of all households here.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

The graph illustrates how rapid internet penetration has occurred in this large, rural county.\u00a0A decade prior, the share of households with an internet connection was far lower, at 77%.\u00a0Grant County in 2024 show no difference to the state of Washington nor the U.S.\u00a0with regard to\u00a0this key metric of 21st\u00a0century infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>

A\u00a0sister<\/a>\u00a0Trends\u00a0indicator reveals that the overwhelming\u00a0component\u00a0of internet connectivity here is broadband. By this measure, the county is also no different than the U.S. or Washington averages.\u00a0<\/p>

In AGRICULTURE<\/strong>:<\/p>

The number of cattle, calves and dairy cows\u00a0drops\u00a0a bit in Grant County\u00a0is\u00a0but\u00a0still high.<\/a><\/strong>

The county is a bovine center \u2013 whether for cow\/calf, feedlot, or dairy operations. The total number\u00a0of head\u00a0surveyed in January of this year by the USDA amounted to\u00a0223,500. Only Yakima County holds more of these mainstays of animal husbandry\u00a0in eastern Washington.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0County\u2019s\u00a0share of\u00a0the\u00a0beef cattle\u00a0inventory\u00a0in the state was over 17%; its share of dairy cows, about 12%.

Peak inventory for the total number of beef and dairy animals came in 2024, when\u00a0the USDA estimated 241,500\u00a0head\u00a0here.\u00a0<\/p>

In ECONOMIC VITALITY<\/strong>:<\/p>

New business applications\u00a0continue to climb in the county.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>

Business applications do not always translate into new businesses, but the\u00a0fit is\u00a0likely pretty\u00a0close.\u00a0According to Census research, the vast number\u00a0remain\u00a0\u201cnon-employer\u201d businesses, that is, without employees. The share that\u00a0does\u00a0convert into\u00a0businesses with paid staff is less than 10%. Nonetheless,\u00a0applications are the first stage for any business and\u00a0an indication\u00a0of entrepreneurial spirit within a county or region.

2024\u00a0represents\u00a0an all-time high for this measure in Grant County, with 974 applications.\u00a0Still, the\u00a0year-over-year\u00a0growth was less than the state average, as the graph makes clear.\u00a0Note the huge jump in applications the year after the first full year of the pandemic. The count has stayed high since then.\u00a0<\/p>

The count of food & beverage manufacturers\u00a0has gone up a bit recently.<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>

A byword of economic development in agricultural-oriented communities is \u201cvalue-added ag.\u201d\u00a0One can add value to the farm-gate price of produce or livestock in a variety of ways, but\u00a0manufacturing\u00a0processes\u00a0cover most of them. This indicator\u00a0tracks the number of food processors\/manufacturers in the county.\u00a0

As of 2024, there\u00a040,\u00a0an\u00a0increase over the prior years of 4-7 companies, depending on the base year. Grant County has historically enjoyed\u00a0a cluster of agricultural\u00a0processors\u00a0(think potatoes; recently\u00a0oilseeds\u00a0and\u00a0wineries).\u00a0In\u00a02024, these operations claimed over 5% of the total county number employed. That percentage is about half of the share taken at the turn of the century.\u00a0But processors\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0gone away; rather the\u00a0county\u00a0economy has become more diversified.\u00a0

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Employment shares in the 5 largest employing sectors\u00a0reveal growing diversification of the economy.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>

Tabulating head count shares of\u00a0the largest sectors of an economy is one way of understanding the structure of the economy and, implicitly,\u00a0its degree of diversification.\u00a0For Grant County, the top five employing sectors have been, in order:\u00a0 agriculture, government (mostly school districts), manufacturing, retail trade and healthcare.\u00a0Of these five, only healthcare has increased its share since pre-pandemic 2019, and then by only a little. This implies that growth\u00a0of\u00a0the number of\u00a0employed\u00a0has occurred in other sectors.\u00a0<\/p>

Quick calculations confirm this.\u00a0First and foremost, this is due to\u00a0increases in\u00a0the\u00a0sector\u00a0professional, scientific & professional services, which\u00a0has nearly tripled its head count, going from 607 to 1,739. (Think\u00a0data centers.)\u00a0This is followed by wholesale trade, with a gain of\u00a0nearly 500. And in distant\u00a0third place\u00a0is construction, registering an increase of headcount of\u00a0nearly 150.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

As a consequence, the share of total employed by county employers by the top five sectors has\u00a0declined from 72% to 68% since 2019.\u00a0

To simplify the graph, click on the elements in the legend you would like to hide.<\/em><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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In EDUCATION<\/strong>:<\/p>

The shares\u00a0of public students meeting standards on the English Language Arts\u00a0component\u00a0of the Smarter Balanced Assessment\u00a0have not yet recovered from the pandemic slump.<\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/p>

For years, the state of Washington has\u00a0administered summary assessments of learning, first the WASL, and in the past 15 years, the Smarter Balance Assessment (SBA).\u00a0The latter has three components, taken at various grades levels:\u00a0 Math, Science, and measured in this indicator, English Language Arts (ELA).\u00a0The assessment is scored\u00a0into\u00a04 categories, with the upper two\u00a0\u201cmeeting standards\u201d and \u201cexceeding standards.\u201d This indicator takes up the share of Grant County public\u00a04th\u00a0and 10th\u00a0grade students who score in one of these two categories of the ELA.\u00a0<\/p>

For the most recent school year, about\u00a0one third\u00a0of county 4th\u00a0graders\u00a0met or exceeded standards. This is slightly below the share\u00a0observed\u00a0in\u00a0school\u00a0year 2018-2019. It is\u00a0considerably below\u00a0the\u00a0Washington\u00a0state average share of\u00a0nearly one\u00a0half (49%)\u00a0in school year 2025-2025.\u00a0<\/p>

For 2024-2025, about\u00a047% of county 10th\u00a0graders met or exceed ELA standards for that grade. That is five percentage\u00a0point\u00a0lower than\u00a0observed\u00a0here in\u00a0school\u00a0year 2018-2019. It is also about 12 percentage points below that state average last year.\u00a0<\/p>

Clearly, the\u00a0pandemic has left its mark on student learning.\u00a0<\/p>

In HEALTH<\/strong>:<\/p>

The share of adults with a personal healthcare provider\u00a0has recently declined in the county.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>

Getting one\u2019s healthcare, especially primary care, from a\u00a0known and regularly visited provider is a hallmark of good public health. Care delivered episodically, and often in crisis, at the emergency department is not. This indicator measures the share of adults\u00a0who answer affirmatively to the question of having a steady personal\u00a0provider.\u00a0<\/p>

In 2024, the share of adults answering yes to this\u00a0query was 68%. That is\u00a0ten percentage points lower than a decade prior. In the immediate aftermath of the pandemic (2021), the\u00a0local\u00a0share reached 87% but has since slumped. It is now considerably below the state average.\u00a0<\/p>

The number and share of residents without\u00a0health insurance\u00a0has recently climbed, reaching\u00a0one sixth\u00a0of the population.<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

Good health depends on many factors, some of which are not medical, such as adequate housing and nutrition. But clinical care matters,\u00a0and outside of charity care, one needs insurance to access\u00a0healthcare providers. This indicator provides estimates of the total county population without health\u00a0insurance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

As of 2024,\u00a0nearly 16,300\u00a0county residents were estimated\u00a0to be without health insurance, or about\u00a016%.\u00a0This is up\u00a0by\u00a03,000 from 2019 and by over 5,000 in 2016, the first full\u00a0year of\u00a0implementation of the Affordable Care Act.\u00a0The county\u2019s current rate is over twice as high as both the state and the national averages.\u00a0<\/p>

In HOUSING<\/strong>:<\/p>

The\u00a0Housing\u00a0Affordability\u00a0Index for first-time buyers\u00a0is improving but\u00a0a far cry from\u00a0affordable.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>

The purchase of a home has typically been seen as the first\u00a0big step in a family\u2019s effort to build wealth.\u00a0For families with children, a home is\u00a0nearly always\u00a0a better\u00a0option\u00a0than living in an apartment.\u00a0Employers are also interested in ensuring that \u201cworkforce housing\u201d exists for their staff.\u00a0How do we measure the ability of first-time home buyers to\u00a0make\u00a0this step?\u00a0<\/p>

Enter the Housing Affordability Index (HAI), in this case for income-constrained households\u00a0purchasing\u00a0a lower price house.\u00a0Specifically, this\u00a0HAI is a ratio, with household income at 70%\u00a0of the area median, on a quarterly basis, in the numerator, and\u00a0the current\u00a0quarter\u2019s\u00a0mortgage costs for a\u00a0home priced at 85% of the area median\u00a0in the denominator. As an index, the HAI is scaled so that 100\u00a0indicates\u00a0that this household has exactly enough income to\u00a0finance the\u00a0mortgage, while limiting mortgage\u00a0expenditures\u00a0to be 25% of household income. A value above 100 implies the household has more than enough funds; a value below 100\u00a0implies not enough funds.\u00a0<\/p>

The latest reading of this HAI for Grant County\u00a074. While this\u00a0represents\u00a0an improvement from the trough of\u00a059 reached in 2023, it is\u00a0distant\u00a0from 100.\u00a0That value was last reached in the final quarter of 2021. Note that pre-pandemic,\u00a0index values were\u00a0considerably\u00a0over\u00a0100, implying good affordability for this buyer type.\u00a0<\/p>

In PUBLIC SAFETY<\/strong>:<\/p>

Property crimes in the county are at historical lows.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>

In 2024, slightly less than 2,500 property crimes were reported authorities at the various jurisdictions in Grant County. Most of these incidents involved small stolen goods (larceny), followed by burglary, followed by car theft. This is nearly the same total is in 2019, the lowest year on record. The rate in 2024, at 23.4 incidents per 1,000 residents, is the lowest on record.\u00a0<\/p>

Peak property crime numbers in the county occurred in 2006, as the graph clearly indicators. Since then, a long decline has set in. \u00a0<\/p>

Note that the local rate is now slightly below the state rate, but above the national rate. So there is still room for improvement.\u00a0

To simplify the graph, click on the elements in the legend you would like to hide.<\/em><\/p>

updated 5.19.26<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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New Intern Features<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\"Image\"<\/div><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Janay Bowen<\/h3><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Hometown:<\/strong>
San Jose, CA
Major:<\/strong>
Professional Accounting
Expected Graduation Date:<\/strong>
Spring 2027
Post-graduations plans:<\/strong>
Work at a local accounting firm to become a CPA!
After a few months of working on the Trends project, my favorite thing so far:<\/strong>
My favorite thing so far working on Trends projects is when I get into the flow state of work and I am understanding and creating spreadsheets that I know help the counties we work for.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The full list of indicators on Grant County Trends can be found here<\/a>.<\/h4><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know there are over 150 different community indicators on Grant County Trends – each updated throughout the year? But which ones, and when?This issue of the Grant County… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grantcountytrends.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/915"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grantcountytrends.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grantcountytrends.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grantcountytrends.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grantcountytrends.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.grantcountytrends.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":949,"href":"https:\/\/www.grantcountytrends.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/915\/revisions\/949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grantcountytrends.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}