PA State Data Center Profiles Pennsylvania's Young Females
April 16, 1998
PA State Data Center Profiles Pennsylvania's
Young Females
MIDDLETOWN, Pa. -- April 23, 1998, marks the
sixth year of the 'Take Our Daughters to Work'
program. Launched in 1993 by the Ms. Foundation,
one expressed purpose of the public education day is
to call attention to the needs and concerns of daughters
and to focus on the girls' abilities rather than their
appearances.
The Pennsylvania State Data Center at Penn
State Harrisburg offers a statistical profile of the young
women of Pennsylvania.
Demographics
Although Pennsylvania's total female population
age 19 and younger has grown slightly from 1990 to
1996, estimates indicate that 37 of Pennsylvania's 67
counties had negative growth rate. In 1996, there were
1,566,771 females aged 0-19 living in Pennsylvania.
This was an increase of 23,869 females or 1.5 percent
from 1990.
Philadelphia County had the largest number of
females of this age group in 1996 (203,424) followed by
Allegheny (156,661), Montgomery (87,373), Bucks
(76,781) and Delaware (72,763). The counties with the
fewest females in 1996 were: Forest (546), Cameron
(714), Sullivan (739), Fulton (1,935) and Potter County
(2,348). Pike County had the largest rate in growth
(28.2 percent) followed by Monroe County (21.8
percent) while Cambria County (-8.3 percent) and
Northumberland County (-7.5 percent) lost the greatest
percentage of females.
According to the Census Bureau, all states are
projected to show a decline in the proportion of youth
(under 20 years of age) in their populations. The
percentage of the Commonwealth's youth is projected
to decrease from 26.6 percent in 1995 to 24.4 percent
in 2025. Its rank in the U.S. was 46th largest proportion
of youth in 1995 and is projected to be the 37th largest
proportion of youth in 2025.
The Census Bureau also projects that the total
female population is getting increasingly older with time.
The median age for females in 2001 is projected to be
37.1 years while by 2015, it is projected to be 38.7 and
by 2050, 39.4 years. Females will still live longer than
males. The median age for males in 2001 is projected
to be 34.7 increasing to 35.9 by 2105 and 36.8 by 2050.
Mortality
In 1995, 2,202 children aged 19 and younger in
Pennsylvania died, 40 percent of them females. The
child death rate continues to decline in Pennsylvania,
decreasing from 6.7 percent in 1960 to 1.7 percent in
1995. This is due to a substantial drop in the number of
deaths to children under age 5.
The leading cause of death in girls under 5 years
of age was perinatal conditions, followed by congenital
anomalies. Unintentional injuries (motor vehicle, fire,
drowning, etc.) ranked 3rd. For girls aged 5 to 24,
unintentional injuries was the leading cause of death
followed by cancer, homicide and legal intervention and
suicide.
Teen Births
Births to teenage mothers accounted for 10.8
percent of all resident live births in 1995, compared to
13.9 in 1980 and 15.1 in 1970. Philadelphia County
had 27.1 percent of all the births to teenagers in the
state (18.4 percent), followed by Allegheny County
which accounted for 8.5 percent of all births (18.4
percent), and Fayette (16.6 percent). Pike County had
the lowest percentage of births to teen mothers (4.4
percent).
Education
Average test scores for girls in 1997 were not
encouraging. Girls scored 498 on the standard verbal
test and 480 on the standard math test, equal to the
state average in verbal but 15 points below the state
average in math. This data is consistent with the
nation. Nationally, in 1995, girls scored similar to boys
on the verbal test but 40 points lower on the math.
Forty-eight percent of vocational-technical
education students in 1995-1996 were female (88,438).
Fifty-nine percent of girls attending vo-tech schools
were in business and trade and industrial education
courses.
Forty-three percent of all high school dropouts
over the last five years were female. More than half of
these dropouts were 17 years of age. More than half of
these dropouts were White (55 percent), one-third were
Black (33 percent) and 10 percent were Hispanic.
Fall college and university enrollments in 1996
for females totaled 312,647 or 55 percent of the total
enrollment.
In 1993, national figures show that 77.5 percent
of females completed a bachelor's degree in 6 years or
less following their high school graduation, 69.5
percent took 5 years or less and 47.6 percent took
4 years or less. This is substantially longer than
it took males for the same amount of time: 71.5, 60.4,
37.8 percent respectively.
It is notable that the male-female ratio was
consistent for most of the fields of study for females
graduating in 1996 with bachelor's degrees except in
the following fields. Females dominated the following
fields: education, English language and literature,
health professions, psychology and public
administration and services. Males dominated
computer and information sciences, engineering,
physical sciences, and social sciences and history.
Poverty
In 1993, 19.7 percent of children under 18 years
of age lived below the poverty level. For children under
the age of five, the rate was 26.5 percent. For families
in 1993 with children aged 5 to 17, 18.1 percent lived in
poverty.
For those families headed by a female only, with
children under 18 years, the percent of those living
below the poverty level was an alarming 42.4 percent.
This increases even higher for female householder
families with children under 5 years of age - 58.4
percent.
Crime
In 1996, 32 girls aged 20 and under were
murdered; 1,530 girls were raped; 2,075 were
assaulted; and 3,342 were victims of sex offenses
according to the Uniform Crime Report. Ten girls aged
19 and under were arrested for murder; 5,655 girls were
arrested for larceny; 5,744 for liquor law violations and
6,223 for disorderly conduct.
The state-sponsored Pennsylvania State Data Center
is the Commonwealth's official source of population and
economic statistics and services. It is based at Penn State
Harrisburg's Institute of State and Regional Affairs.
____________________________________________
Editors: For more information, contact Lesley Nearman at
the Data Center's State Capital Office, (717) 772-2710, or
the Penn State Harrisburg's Public Information Office, (717)
948-6029.
Source of Information: U.S. Census Bureau ; PA Dept of
Health, Vital Statistics ; PA Dept
of Education ; PA State Police ;
National Center for Education
Statistics
Accompany Table: Female Population Age 0-19, Pennsylvania 1990 and 1996
Accompany Chart: Female Population Age 0-24 Estimates, 1995-2025