Community Development
What is Community Development?
Welcome! My name is Pat Malone, and I am the Community Development Educator for Dodge County Extension. What will I do as a community development educator? Community development is both an occupation and a way of working with communities. I will work alongside people in Dodge County communities to build relationships with key folks and organizations to identify and address community concerns. In my 30+ years as a community developer, these concerns have ranged from doing community economic analyses, building capacity to address long-term care issues, leadership development, and a host of other issues.
I am looking forward to meeting the people in Dodge County and working together to address issues.
Meet Our Educator:
Dodge County – By The Numbers:
Data is important to people who are developing business plans, looking for grants, or just trying to understand their community better. To help with that, our team at the Extension office has put together a series of infographics.
We are starting with basic demographic data that comes from the U.S. Census Bureau from the years 2018-2022, the most recent data. Our first infographic is information on housing statistics in Dodge County:
Housing Families & Living Arrangements:
• 35,615 Households
• 89.7% Living in the Same House More Than 1 Year
• 2.39 Persons per Household
Household Income:
• $35,949 Per Capita Income in Past 12 Months (In 2022 Dollars)
• $71,747 Median Household Income (In 2022 Dollars)
Rent or Buy:
• $929 Median Gross Rent
• $201,000 Median Gross Value of Owner-occupied Housing Units
• 70.6% Owner-occupied Housing Unit Rate
Our second infographic is information on population statistics in Dodge County:
Population Based on Age:
• 4.5% Persons under 5 years
• 19.1% Persons 6 – 18 years
• 56.9% Persons 19-64 years
• 19.5% Persons 65 years and over
Population Based on Gender:
• 53% Male
• 47% Female
Based on Origin:
• 94.3% White alone
• 6.9% Hispanic or Latino
• 3.0% Black or African American alone
• 1.2% Two or More Races
• 0.8% Asian alone
• 0.7% American Indian & Alaskan Native alone
• 0.1% Native Hawaiian & Other Pacific Islander alone
Our third infographic is information on economy statistics in Dodge County:
In Civilian Labor Force (Age 16 Years +):
• 66.5% Total Percent of Population
• 64.2% Female
Education (Age 25 Years +):
• 92.2% High School Graduate or Higher
• 19.6% Bachelor’s Degree or Higher
Computer and Internet Use:
• 91.7% Households with a Computer
• 87.5% Households with Broadband Internet
Income & Poverty (in 2022 dollars):
• $71,747 Median Household Income
• $35,949 Per Capita Income in Past 12 months
• 8.9% Persons in Poverty
People can describe their local economy in many ways. The data in this infographic are some of the more common ways an economy can be described. It is common to share the percent of the population over 16 years that are currently working. The age of 16+ describes the working years. They often include the percent of the female population currently working since this is often considered a measure of the pool of available workers.
Education lets potential business owners know the potential level of skill available in the workforce.
More frequently we include computer and internet use as a measure of how connected the public is. Finally, income and poverty levels are used by many agencies when they are developing programs and writing grants. These are only a few of the more common economic descriptors that can be used. The challenge is to find the data that tells the county’s story the best.
Interested in more about Wisconsin’s demographic data?
Check out getfacts.wisc.edu. You can get basic demographic data about Wisconsin or select any county, city, village, or town.
The data provided is from the US Census and the ACS (American Community Survey). This data site is put together by the APL (Applied Population Lab) to make it easier to begin your data hunt.
