2003 Consolidated Plan for Housing & Community Development
Community Profile

The City's population has grown slightly over the last 20 years. Chittenden County, on the other hand, has seen a substantial increase in population.

Household Characteristics

The biggest decrease in the number of Burlington families happened during the decade from 1970 to 1980. Over the last decade, the number of family households actually increased slightly, although the percentage of family households decreased slightly.

Age of Population

College Students

The City is home to two residential institutions of higher learning (the University of Vermont and Champlain College) and to four additional educational institutions with substantial student populations (the Community College of Vermont, Burlington College, the New England Culinary Institute and the Vermont College of Cosmetology). The University of Vermont (UVM) is the largest of these educational institutions, and has the greatest impact on local housing.

The overall number of college students in the City has grown from 5,877 in 1970 to 10,163 in 2000, with the largest jump in growth occurring from 1970 to 1980. UVM has announced a 10-year goal of increasing undergraduate enrollment from 7,600 to 9,600 and graduate enrollment from 1,200 to 2,400. There are currently around 6,100 college and graduate students living off campus in Burlington. In some neighborhoods, students are now the principal residents. See College Student Map. That trend has significantly affected the availability and affordability of rental housing in the City, as well as quality of life in residential neighborhoods.

Income and Poverty

Chittenden County is the most prosperous county in Vermont, with a 2000 median family income of $59,460 and a median household income of $47,673. Median income in Burlington, however, lags below that of the rest of Chittenden County (with the exception of the City of Winooski).   See Regional Median Family Income Map.

Median household income in Burlington is $33,070, and is even lower in census tracts 3, 4, 5 and 10.  Median household income is impacted by the large number of off-campus student residents in Burlington. However, median family income is also significantly lower in Burlington ($46,012 in 2000) than in the rest of the county (again, excluding Winooski), and lower again in the census tracts 3, 4 and 10.  See Burlington Median Family Income Map.

The chart below shows income distribution for households and families in Burlington:

Poverty thresholds for purposes of the 2000 Census were:

The 2000 Census showed that in five of Burlington's eleven census tracts - where about 46% of the city's population lives - the poverty rate for individuals is over 25%. See Individual Poverty Map.  However, in assessing poverty, the poverty rate for individuals in the City is skewed by the City's large population of college students who don't live in dorms (6,103 people) - and who are counted in the census calculation of the poverty rate for individuals. A more realistic assessment of poverty in the City is probably found in the family poverty rate.  See Family Poverty Map.

Poverty Trends

Poverty rates for families, families with children, and female-headed families with children decreased in the last decade after increasing - sometimes sharply - from 1980 to 1990. For seniors, the poverty rate continued to decline over the last 20 years. Around 20% of the children in Burlington continue to live in poverty. 

Low and Moderate Income Thresholds and Geographic Concentrations

"Low and moderate" income standards are established by regional medians, and are updated annually by HUD. The table below shows the definition of "low and moderate income"[1] for the year 2003 for the Burlington Metropolitan Statistical Area for one to four person households.

"Poverty" thresholds are set nationally, and are generally lower than the local "low and moderate income" thresholds. For example, the 2002 poverty thresholds from the Census Bureau for people under 65 were:

Using "low and moderate income" standards, fifty-seven percent of the City's population overall are low and moderate-income residents (i.e., earn less than 80% of area median income). In 16 of 27 census block groups, more than half of the households were low and moderate income. See Low and Moderate Income Map. The table below shows low and moderate-income information for each census block group in the City.

* Total persons counted for purposes of calculating low and moderate income percentages. May be less than the total census count of population because it excludes certain groups such as students in dorms.

Using poverty statistics, there are high percentages of families living in poverty in census tracts 3, 4 and 10 in Burlington. A large number of families living in poverty are also found in census tract 2.  See also Family Poverty Map.

Within Chittenden County, families living in poverty tend to be concentrated in Burlington. Forty-three percent of the county's impoverished families live in Burlington, although the City has only 20% of all families overall. 

To compare "low and moderate income" and "poverty" thresholds against the Basic Needs Budget calculated by the Joint Fiscal Office of the Vermont Legislature - which calculates the wages necessary to cover food, housing, child care, transportation, health care, clothing, household and personal expenses and insurance plus federal and state taxes - see Livable Jobs in the Economic Development section.

Race and Ethnicity

Burlington as a whole has become more racially and ethnically diverse over the last 20 years. Overall, 9.1% of City residents identify themselves as something other than white and not Hispanic. (The 2000 Census allowed people to identify themselves as multi-racial for the first time.) The City's largest single minority group is Asian; among that group, Vietnamese are the largest subgroup.

Racial/Ethnic Concentrations

Data from the 2000 U.S. Census showed no significant geographical concentrations of racial groups within Burlington. However, a higher percentage of minority residents live in the Old North End area of Burlington than in the rest of the city.

In comparing Burlington to the rest of Chittenden County, there is clearly a geographic concentration of minority residents in the City. Burlington accounts for about 27% of the county's population, yet the City's percentage of racial minorities is considerably higher in each racial category:

Information from the 2000 Census did show economic - as opposed to geographic - concentrations among racial/ethnic groups in the city. Both individual and family poverty rates are significantly higher among most minority groups:

New Residents, Foreign-Born

Burlington has seen an increase in its population of new new residents who are foreign-born and newly arrived in the United States. The 2000 Census showed that almost 5% of City residents (1,925 people) had entered the country in the last ten years - and 1,345 residents had entered the country in the last five years. The New Residents, Foreign Born Map shows principal areas of settlement within the City. Major refugee resettlement groups have come from Vietnam, Bosnia and the Sudan. The city anticipates that Bantu refugees from Somalia