Demographics

The area of Concord surrounding Todos Santos and Mount Diablo High School boast a large Latino or Hispanic population, which matches our experience of the area.  The census data is a little bit inconsistent, but it is clear that the majority of the population is Latino at slightly over 50% reporting as such to the census, while only 30% of Concord as a whole reports as Latino.  Mount Diablo High School also has a majority of Hispanic or Latino students, nearly directly proportional to the census data for the area.  It is interesting to note that while the census reports that nearly 30% of the population in the area is White, only 16% of the student population is identified as White.  According to at least one source (movoto.com) indicates that nearly one quarter of the population of the 94520 area code are not citizens of the United States.

During our observations on Sunday it is clear that the perception (from both outside the immediate area as well as local citizens) is that Concord is a predominately Hispanic city, one that fits with the census data that we discovered.  This statistic may also be linked to certain other factors in the area including but not limited to: the types of food, education, businesses and community events.  During a few of the interviews it seemed that the interviewees acknowledged the gang violence and crime around Mt. Diablo High and almost imperceptibly linked it to the variety of cultures in the area.

As far as income is concerned, around 75% or households make $75,000 or less each year, while 18% of the area code is living under the poverty line.  Housing prices are fairly high, while most people live in houses between $200,000 and $500,000, the average price of a house is around $250,000.  Not surprisingly, with a relatively urban area, there are close to double the number of rented units, that owned housing units.

Nearly 75% of the population over 16 in the area are employed, and unemployment is at 8.5%.  It seems that roughly two thirds of the working population of the area actually work in the city, over half of those jobs are in service or sales.  This makes sense considering the large numbers of restaurants and stores located downtown.