Blaine Stands Out Idaho County Differs In Variety Of Ways

A popular Boise bumper sticker reads, “Sun Valley is Not Idaho.”

Now there’s new statistical evidence suggesting the Blaine-bashers of Boise According to the Atlas of Social Indicators for the Upper Columbia River Basin, Blaine County stands out in the Intermountain West. The atlas was prepared in part to help federal land managers make management decisions and how those decisions will affect surrounding communities.

“…a better understanding of social conditions among agency personnel and our cooperators in county government provides a basis for positive actions on federal lands,” wrote Thomas Quigley, science team leader for the project.

Blaine County’s educational levels are significantly higher than those of its surrounding counties in Idaho, eastern Washington and western Montana.

Of 57 counties surveyed, Blaine had the highest percentage of adults who have graduated from high school, 91.7 percent. Idaho’s Owyhee County was last, 62 percent. At the average was Jefferson County in Idaho, 77.6 per cent.

The same was true with college. Blaine had 33 percent of its adult population with degrees, just behind Latah County, home of the University of Idaho at Moscow, 35.8 percent.

Owyhee and Idaho’s Gem County were at the other end, 8.7 and 8.6 percent.

Blaine County’s median household income, $31,199, was the second highest in the region. But owner-occupied home ownership was near the bottom, 64.2 percent. Bear Lake County was the highest in Idaho, 83.2 percent.

Just 4 percent of the adults in Blaine County were unemployed in 1989, one of the lowest rates in the region. The percentage of the population living at the poverty level or lower was 7.7 percent, compared with 14.5 percent in neighboring Cassia County and the 28.6 percent in Madison County.

Blaine County also registered the largest percentage of adult women in the work force, 41.6 percent. Jerome County was right at the regional average, 25.1 percent. Caribou County was the lowest, 15.5 percent.

Blaine also was on the top 10 list for divorce, 7.5 per 1,000 residents. Butte County had the best record, 1.7 per 1,000.

Blaine County also has more single-family households than the regional average.