1. Chebeague Age Groups 1990, 2000, 2010 I

2. A Few Facts Worth Remembering
What We Do Know
A Few Facts
Worth Remembering
Yes, with a small population like ours there can be questions about accuracy, quality of the count – details
But let’s look at the big, overall picture and What We Do Know – Our totalyear-round population has not grown over the last ten years, but we have many more houses

3. Observation An Older Resident’s Observation
“I moved here in 1988 and haven’t seen any growth in the year-round population but I have seen a lot more houses built.”

4. Chebeague Age Pyramid 1990-2010
If we take John’s graph and tip it so the youngest are at the bottom and the eldest are at the top, it looks like this –
Sort of a big punch bowl with a small base – those in the big bowl are over 50 and those in the small base are under ten
This is what we all saw in school when we drew our first graphs – An Age Pyramid - But it doesn’t look like a pyramid
More like a pyramid turned upside down, with the base at the top and the peak at the bottom
That is because young people and children are such a small part of our community

5. We Know Babies Born Each Year
Very Few peak at 6
Drops to Zero Today
We shouldn’t be surprised –we have very few births each year, and overall the trend has been to have fewer and fewer each year. Yes, there are little zigzags around the trend but as you can see in the following graph, the trend line is dropping since These number come from carefully kept birth records over all months of each year. They do not come from the census taken only every 10 years.

6. Births and Adoptions
The births registered over the last sixteen years include adoptions, with the adopted child’s birth date the one entered into the record

7. We Know Deaths Each Year
Many More Deaths than Births
Celebrations of lives long lived – such as the Fiesta of last night at the Commons as well as funerals-- are community events – and we all are proud of the long, active lives people live on Chebeague. But we are also all witnesses to how many more deaths there are each year than there are births

8. Very High Median Age Chebeague 58 years Maine 42 years HIGHEST in US
Maine headed all states in the US in 2010 with having an elderly population
Our median age has also been rising faster than any other state in the US
Look at Chebeague – we are way out ahead of the Maine average – and almost double that of the US average
So it is not a surprise that deaths in our community are a more frequent event than births

9. Our Population Has Not Grown
Year-Round Total Population About
January
How could this be - ? We should be surprised because we have actually had a negative level of natural increase., Many more deaths than births

10. Equals Total Population + (Births-Deaths)
Natural Increase
Equals Total Population + (Births-Deaths)
(1 – 13)
Negative
When deaths exceed births a population experiences negative natural increase. This is what has been happening to our Chebeague population.
So how is it that our total population remains about the same?

11. New Arrivals Keep Us Going
Without New Additions to our Year-Round Population We Would Be Declining, Sharply
Many of those who settle are older – and add a lot to our community – but do not bring children to the school
It is new arrivals that have kept us going at about the same level. We also experience people who move off the island. Fortunately, new residents coming to live here year-round have added up to more than those who have left, compensating as well for our negative natural increase.

12. Housing Units 2010 21% Built During Past 20 years
525 Total Housing Units
171 Occupied
354 Vacant
334 for seasonal use
US Census results of 2010 for Unit show that our older neighbor’s observations were correct, when saying the population has not grown over the past 20 years but the number of buildings has. – Building results of studies for the Chebeague Comprehensive Plan found that 21% of all our houses today whad been built over the past 20 years. –( see p. 4 of the Plan summary)
The census in 2010 counted 525 housing units with only 171 occupied year-round are for seasonal use only.
Circling back to the first comment – “I haven’t seen any growth in the population but I have seen a lot of new houses built
Yes our total population has not changed much but our composition has

13. Good News 8 Families Have Moved Here Past 3 Years
4 New Year-Round Houses Built by Young Families
2 New Families with Children in School
2 Toddlers under age 2
2 Babies on the Way
Recently we have had good news that suggests there may be an emerging trend for some younger people to settle here. Donna Damon and Beverly Johnson found that 8 families moved to Chebeague over the past 3 years. Young families have built four new year-round houses. There are two new families with children in the school. There are two toddlers under age 2, and 2 babies on the way.

14. Parent’s Observation
“I hadn’t realized just how much of a drop in birth rates there has been here. The culture of love, joy, and acceptance that makes this place special has drawn people back for generations.”
Will this make our population younger? Not significantly. The trend will need to expand to many more than this if our age distribution is to begin to look more like a pyramid than a punch bowl.
A parent on Chebeague left this moving comment in the IslandLife “ideas” box, suggesting that the island’s greatest attraction, for young and old alike, is its culture of “love, joy and acceptance.”