Chico, If you use the MSA as the measure the numbers get extreamly lop sided. If we take the just total MSA population numbers as set by the US Census Bureau...
Charleston-North Charleston, SC MSA = 549,033
Columbia, SC MSA = 536,691
Greenville--Spartanburg--Anderson, SC MSA = 962,441
(source: U.S. Census Bureau
Census 2000 - P1 Total population - Census 2000 summary file 3)
Now if we look at the population under 18:
Charleston-North Charleston, SC MSA = 141,342 or 25.7%
Columbia, SC MSA = 133,922 or 25%%
Greenville--Spartanburg--Anderson, SC MSA = 235,319 or 24.5%
(source: U.S. Census Bureau
Census 2000 - Universe: population under18 years - Census 2000 summary file 2 100-percent data)
So you are correct, Cola. and Charleston do have a higher percentage of children under tha age of 18. However, it is a .5% and 1.2% difference of a much smaller number and that is before we start to break those numbers down into "classes"
I do not like using the MSA as a measure (at least in this case) because when you look at the Greenville--Spartanburg--Anderson, SC MSA you are talking 3 metropolitan areas sread over 5 counties. That is the reason I had lumped the counties together using just Greenville and Spartanburg, maybe not as accurate but a more equitable measure.(in my opinion)
Something which shocked me was that Lexington and Richland counties have more black children than all 5 counties in the Greenville MSA combined.
