Hamilton County’s 357,000 residents are a little more than 0.1% of the 332 million national citizens (1/1,000). It’s typical 80 National Merit Semifinalists are 0.5% of the 16,000 national total (1/200). It produces 5 times more than its “fair share”.
The 13 lowest population states range from 0.6 to 1.8 million citizens, averaging 1 million. Hamilton County has one-third as many citizens, on average.
Public Sheridan HS awards some NMS semifinalists. Hamilton County has a large number of students at private schools that do not report NMS semifinalists by their place of residence. University, Park Tudor, Heritage Christian, Cathedral, Roncalli and Guerin. I estimate that there are another 3-5 Hamilton County winners each year.
Hamilton County students benefit from their abilities, parental and neighbor involvement, high expectations, extracurricular opportunities and strong school systems.
Typical annual National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists:
Hamilton County’s employment has grown 16-fold since 1970 from 15,000 to 243,000. This is a 52-year compounded 5.5% growth rate. You aren’t likely to find that growth rate in your stock or mutual fund portfolio!
This growth started from a low base of 1,500 new jobs per year and accelerated to 5,000 new jobs per year by 2000. Hamilton County has maintained this growth rate for 2 decades with some extra results recently!
Hamilton County’s population doubled from 1970 to 1990. Metro Indy, excluding Hamilton County, grew by the same 50,000 people. In the next 30 years, Hamilton County added more than 250,000 people and the rest of metro Indy added a very solid 475,000 people (almost 2X). Hamilton County benefits from the Midwest leading growth of metro Indy.
Hamilton County employment growth has been a little faster than population growth.
Metro US population has grown by 1% annually and employment has grown by 1.6% annually. The Indy metro area has grown at similar rates. Hamilton County has grown 3-4 times faster.
As Hamilton County has grown, its annual growth rate has declined from 7% to 4%, still far above the 1.5-2% baseline growth rate.
Hamilton County has grown from 1/3,000 US people and 1/5,000 US employees to 1/800 citizens and workers. (4-6X growth).
Metro Indianapolis has been a solid job creator. Hamilton County has grown alongside the metro area.
Hamilton County was a “bedroom suburb” in its early days but reached the national level of jobs to population by 1992 and tracked the national average thereafter.
Methodists, Baptists and “Christians” played key roles in founding churches in the pioneer 19th century. Some of these churches or their descendants remain influential to this day. The historical summary below is from 1915.
Hamilton County has the national average of 1% of LDS, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhists. It hosts 2% of Jewish faith members versus the 1% national average. The county reports 25% unaffiliated, slightly above the national average of 23%. The county reports only one-third of the national average of Black and Hispanic religious members today. It has 50% more White Catholics, Evangelicals and Mainstream Protestants compared with the national average (63% vs 44% overall).
Sperling’s Best Places reports that Hamilton County has 45% religious citizens versus the national average of 49%.
At 2,074 people per congregation there are one-half as many churches as the national average of 1,000 (332M/350K). It’s difficult to interpret this number. I think that it reflects the lag between population growth and church planting. Nearby Indianapolis is noted for its nation leading 2,900 churches for 1 M people or one church for every 300 people.
Hamilton County residents are well served by 5 nearby general aviation airports. The county owns and operates Indy Executive Airport which recently expanded its main runway to 7,000 feet, the longest general aviation runway in the state, now capable of landing all private jet aircraft. The airport hosts 100 aircraft, including 20 jets and conducts more than 40,000 operations per year. It is the fourth busiest non-towered airport in the US. The airport hosted private jet flights from around the country for the 2012 Super Bowl. It was awarded “Indiana Airport of the Year” recognition in 2007.
Indianapolis Metro Airport is located in Fishers near the Marion County border and operated by the Indianapolis Airport Authority as a “reliever airport”. It has 110 based aircraft and conducts 25,000 operations each year. It has a single 4,000-foot runway and is actively developing half of its 400 acres for aviation-related uses.
Eagle Creek, Anderson and Indy Regional airports to the southwest, north and southeast also offer general aviation services to Hamilton County residents.
Indianapolis boasts main runways of 11,200 and 10,000 feet and a cross-wind runway of 7,200 feet. Indy is home to one of the nation’s 22 FAA control districts. Indianapolis has 40 direct flight destinations. Due to its Fed Ex hub status, it joins its neighbors Chicago, Louisville and Cincinnati as “top 10” US air cargo carriers, ensuring that the airport receives priority FAA funding and maintenance.
Historically, Indy residents took advantage of the US Air hub in Dayton (74th largest metro area) and the Delta hub in Cincinnati (30th largest metro area) within 2 hours, but those attractions have expired. Louisville (43rd largest metro area) is also within 2 hours but has never had preferred flight options.
Similarly, Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, Nashville, Milwaukee and Columbus are large metro areas within 5 hours of Indy, but typically do not have super attractive air travel options worth a long drive.
Chicago’s Midway (31st busiest) and O’Hare (4th busiest) airports DO provide solid air travel options for Hamilton County residents, just 3 hours away.
Despite its relatively small size, Indy has attracted all national carriers and many discount carriers. Its average ticket is $396, just above the $392 national average. Among top 50 metro areas, it ranks 20th at $396, just above the median of $390.
Hamilton County has several top-quality general aviation options. The Indianapolis International Airport is a national leader in quality and service. Prices are roughly average. Indy has a relatively low number of direct flights, so travelers often need to connect through major hubs or drive to Chicago, especially for international destinations.
Hamilton County has the fourth largest population of the 92 Indiana counties at 365,000, trailing only Allen (391K), Lake (500K) and Marion (961K) counties.
It has the second highest Net Assessed Property Valuation (NAV) at $33.8 billion, trailing only Marion ($58.1B), but ahead of Lake ($30.6B) and Allen ($24.0B) counties. This reflects higher than average residential property values and significant commercial property investments (30% of the total).
The average net assessed valuation per capita in Indiana is $63,000. At $92,600, Hamilton County has the highest NAV/person among the 21 counties with at least 100,000 residents or a density of at least 200 people per square mile. It is 50% higher than the state average. Marion, Lake and Allen counties each have NAV/person slightly below the state average. These 21 counties represent 68% of the population and 67% of the NAV, with an average NAV/capita of $61,900, slightly below the state average.
18 of the 20 counties with the highest NAV/person in Indiana have population densities below the state average of 191 people per square mile. Benton County has a population of just 8,000, rich agricultural lands and several windmill farms giving it the state lead at $148,600 of NAV per person.
Carmel-Clay Public Library (CCPL) was awarded the top tier rating in the Hennen’s American Public Library Ratings (HAPLR) system in each of its first 9 years, one of only 11 libraries in the country to consistently qualify among the best.
The Sheridan Public Library was rated at the 87th percentile by the Library Journal in 2020.
The Westfield-Washington Public Library was ranked at the 62nd percentile.
The Hamilton North Public Library was listed at the 48th percentile.
The Hamilton East Public Library was not rated in recent years.
The state of Indiana tracks total materials circulation per population which can be used as an indicator of library activity and quality. Of the 236 Indiana library districts, CCPL ranked 3rd with 19.4 items per person in 2021. Hamilton East was close behind, ranked 5th with 16.1 items per person. Westfield-Washington was 17th with 12.3 items per person.
Combining the 5 Hamilton County public libraries yields annual circulation of 16.1 items per person, which would rank 5th out of 232 libraries if it was a single library system. (Table 7). Hamilton County checks out more than twice as many items as the state average of 7.4 per person.
The percentage of persons aged 15 or older who are married is 48% in the US. Indiana is slightly higher at 49%. Utah (56%) and Idaho (55%) lead the nation with Wyoming, Nebraska and Iowa close behind at 53%. Five states are lowest rated at 44-45%: New Mexico, Mississippi, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey.
62% of Hamilton County residents are married! That is first place among the 50 most populous Indiana counties (of 92). It is in first place in metro Indy, where Marion County has a 39% marriage rate.
Of the top 50 most populous counties in the US, none come close to Hamilton County’s marriage rate. Fairfax County (56%) and Santa Clara County (53%) have the highest rates. Lowest rated counties are Milwaukee (38%), New York (33%), Bronx (31%) and Philadelphia (30%).
In 2022, 34% of those aged 25+ in the US had completed bachelor’s degrees. Indiana lagged the national average at 30%. Nearby Kentucky (28%), Ohio (32%), Michigan (32%) and Illinois (38%) were near the national average. Nine east coast states (VT, NJ, CT, NH, NY, VA, DC, MD and MA) plus CO and WA exceeded 44%.
The Census Bureau provided a nice interactive map to display county level data from the American Community Survey for 2015-19. They used 40% as the cut-off for the very highest educated counties.
Focusing on Indiana and its 4 adjacent states, there were just 15 counties with 40%+ bachelor’s degree completion rates among the 485 counties (3%). Hamilton County was in first place at 56%, tied with suburban Detroit’s Washtenaw County. Columbus suburb Delaware County was in third place at 54%. Suburban Chicago’s DuPage County and Indy’s Boone County tied for fourth place at 49%. Detroit’s Oakland County (47%) claimed sixth place, while Indiana’s Monroe County (46%) snagged seventh place. Franklin and Warren counties in Ohio, Leelanau County in Michigan, Champaign, McLean and Lake counties in Illinois, and Oldham and Fayette counties in Kentucky earned honorable mention.
Hamilton County ranked in 16th place overall (99.5 percentile) among all 3,100 counties nationally.
Of the top 20 counties, 5 had populations below 25,000. The greater DC/Baltimore area claimed 7 of the top spots: Arlington, Alexandria, Howard, Fairfax, Loudon, Montgomery and DC. Denver suburban Boulder and Douglas counties won two places. New York and San Francisco placed in the top 20. Marin, CA, Williamson, TN and Orange, NC claimed the other 3 top spots.
Hamilton County is in very fine company. It’s bachelor’s degree percentage increased from 56% in the 2015-19 average to 61% in the 2017-21 average.
Hamilton County municipalities, townships and districts had $2.3 billion dollars of debt outstanding at the end of 2022. That amounts to $6,300 per resident. Carmel entities accounted for $1.05 billion, or $10,300 per resident. The other 8 townships owed $1.26 billion, or $4,800 per resident. The other 91 Indiana counties’ 6.5 million citizens owed $30.5 billion, or $4,700 per resident.
Municipalities have significantly less resources and taxing authority than states. Hence their bond ratings are lower. 16 states have AAA ratings, 9 have AA+, 5 AA-, 15 AA and 5 lower ratings.
Good News 