Census 2000 totals place Lincoln County’s overall populationgrowth in line with a state trend, but the county’s senior citizenpopulation percentage is noticeably higher than the state’s,chamber of commerce officials said.

The larger percentage of elderly contributed to a median agethat was four years higher than the state average, but still inline with the national number. Lincoln County’s median age was35.8, while the state average was 31.8 and the national average was35.3.

“Any time you’ve got a higher percentage of 65 and over, it’sgoing to impact some of your lower numbers,” said Chandler Russ,executive vice-president of the Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamberof Commerce.

According to census data, the county’s 4,626 people over age 65represented 13.9 percent of the population. That was almost twopercentage points higher than the state average of 12.1percent.

The county’s 2000 over-65 percentage was down some from the 1990percentage, which was 14.7 percent. In actual numbers, there were4,467 people over age 65 in 1990.

On the other end of the age spectrum, the 8,842 people under age18 accounted for 26.7 percent of the county’s 2000 population. Thatwas a little below the state’s 27.3 percent average but above thenational average of 25.7 percent.

In comparison, 1990 totals for the under-18 group showed fewerpeople but a higher percentage of the county’s 30,278 population.There were 8,592 people under age 18 that year, accounting for 28.3percent of the total.

Lincoln County’s total population for 2000 was 33,166, which wasup .95 percent annually from 1990’s 30,278. The state had an annualgrowth rate of 1.1 percent over the the 10-year period.

In terms of working age population — those between 25 and 64 –the county’s 2000 percentage was 49.8 percent, which was nearlyidentical to the state average of 49.7 percent. The county had16,545 people in that age range in 2000.

Growth in that age group, however, was off some compared to thestate over the 10-year span from 1990 to 2000. The county’s workingage population grew by 1.51 percent while the state’s growth ratewas 1.67 percent.

The working age population in 1990 was 14,408, which was 47.5percent of the total.

Russ indicated the growth numbers were still good as long asthey as they were within range of state and national averages.

“You’re creating a labor pool and a work force and doing somegood things there,” Russ said about the growth.

In other census data, the number of total county households grewfrom 11,089 in 1990 to 12,538 in 2000.

Family households accounted for 8,319 of the total in 1990 whilethere were 9,191 in 2000. Female householders with no husbandpresent totaled 1,559 in 1990, and there were 1,839 of those in2000, including 1,038 with children under age 18.

Non-family households accounted for the remaining 2,771 in 1990and 3,347 in 2000.

Of the non-family households, 2,640 in 1990 were citizens livingalone and 3,054 were citizens living alone in 2000. The over-65,living alone group represented 1,396 of the 1990 non-familyhouseholds and 1,439 of the 2000 total.