As Kootenai County grows, so do strange trends

Kootenai County is inhabited by a lot of strange people. Based on the last update of the U. S. census in 2005, 127,668 people to be exact – and all are somewhat strange in one way or another.

Of course strangeness is in the eye of the beholder, so what’s strange to one part of the county will be perfectly normal to another. And while Kootenai County is not an ethnically diverse area, it still has its regional demographic differences, to be sure.

As everyone is aware, Kootenai County has undergone astonishing growth in the past eight years – you’ve either witnessed the growth, or you’ve been a cause of it. In the five years between the 2000 census and the 2005 update, the county grew from 108,685 people, at a rate of more than 17 percent. It’s a strange sort of happening for a place such as North Idaho.

Coeur d’Alene grew by 20 percent (34,514 to 41,328), and Post Falls grew by an unbelievable 42 percent (17,247 to 24,420), for a combined “Coeur d’Falls” minimegalopolistic growth rate of 27 percent.

Kootenai County contains 14 incorporated cities, towns and villages. None of the 12 smaller burgs come anywhere close to the size of Coeur d’Alene or Post Falls, so most were not included in the 2005 census update. Combined, these 12 made up only one-fifth of the 2000 county population. Another third lived in unincorporated areas. By 2005, however, Coeur d’Falls alone accounted for more than half (52 percent) of all county residents.

By the way, Bayview would qualify as town number 15, but has never bothered to legitimize its township – it just lives as a town without the benefit of a legal relationship with the state. It has its own unique strangeness, but it is not recognized by the census.

Of Kootenai County’s towns, Hayden was the largest (9,159 people) in 2000, followed by Rathdrum (4,816), Dalton Gardens (2,278) and Spirit Lake (1,376), in the category of population over 1,000.

The two smallest towns were, and still are, State Line Village (28) and Huetter (96). In between, there were three towns at less than 300 people; Fernan Lake Village (186), Worley (223) and Harrison (267); and three towns at greater than 400 people; Hayden Lake (494), Hauser (668) and Athol (676). Estimated at a population of about 700, Bayview fits in this latter category.

From here on is where the demographics of Kootenai County show some strange patterns. Obviously, however, these population sizes, especially for State Line Village and Huetter, are too small to allow for meaningful statistical analysis.

First of all, as I mentioned before, ethnic diversity is lacking in Kootenai County. If you’ve looked around at all, that’s not a surprising statement. In 2000, Coeur d’Falls and most of the other towns were 96 percent White, 2 percent Hispanic, 1 percent Native American and less than 1 percent African American.

There were, though, two strange exceptions. I guess if you know county history it’s not actually so strange, but two towns stand out ethnically: Hayden Lake was 99 percent (99.6 percent to be exact) white, and Worley was 69 percent white and 29 percent Native American. Worley, of course, is the only Kootenai County town within the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation, and Hayden Lake is the former headquarters of the Aryan Nations, a widely known Neo-Nazi organization.

In other aspects, county demographics also show some trends as population has settled into towns along some strange patterns of age, gender and household income and composition (married, single, over 65 living alone).

The strangeness is in the extremes, so if your town isn’t mentioned much, it was fairly average compared to the county as a whole. Those most average towns, along with Coeur d’Falls, were Hayden, Hauser and Spirit Lake. The most extreme, probably due to their size, were State Line Village and Huetter.

Three communities stood out in terms of wealth and age: Hayden Lake, Fernan Lake Village and Dalton Gardens. These three towns had the highest household incomes, the highest median ages and the least number of young families.

At the other extreme in terms of wealth were five communities: Worley, Hauser, Spirit Lake, Athol and Harrison. The first three had the lowest median household incomes and the last three had the highest percentage of families living below the poverty line. Harrison had the most living in poverty with more than 50 percent of the children in this group. Worley had the lowest percentage of families living in poverty.

The youngest community, based on median age and the percentage of children in the population, was Rathdrum. It also scored relatively high on the income scale.

The oldest communities, those with the highest percentages of elderly, were Hayden Lake and Fernan Lake Village – no surprise there – and Harrison and Worley. Rathdrum had the fewest elderly. Harrison had the highest percentage of elderly living alone.

Marriage was by far the most popular in Hayden Lake, Fernan Lake Village, Dalton Gardens and Rathdrum and was least popular in Harrison, Huetter and State Line Village. The latter two I understand; Harrison is not so obvious.

Finally, and strangest of all, is the gender distribution within Kootenai County. For every 100 adult females, there are only 95 males. In Harrison (85) and Worley (88) there were even fewer males.

In three towns, however, males outnumbered females. In Athol the advantage was slight (103). But girls, watch out in State Line Village (138) and Huetter (148) – but I guess they already knew that. Everything is strange in those two places.