County Erie County, New York - Population, Income & Demographics

The median income of households in Erie County, New York was $71,175. An estimated 5.8% of households had income below $10,000 a year and 9% had income of $200,000 or more.

An estimated 73.6% of households received earnings. An estimated 34.7% of households received Social Security and an estimated 29.4 % of households received retirement income other than Social Security. The average income from Social Security was $23,090. These income sources are not mutually exclusive; that is, some households received income from more than one source.

In 2019-2023, 14 % of people were in poverty. An estimated 19.6% of children under 18 were below the poverty level, compared with 10.3% of people 65 years old and over. An estimated 13.3% of people 18 to 64 years were below the poverty level.

In 2019-2023, 15.7 % of households received SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). An estimated 39.1% of households that received SNAP had children under 18, and 38.4% of households that received SNAP had one or more people 60 years and over. An estimated 30.2% of all households receiving SNAP were families with a female householder and no spouse present.

Among the civilian noninstitutionalized population in Erie County, New York in 2019-2023, 97.2% had health insurance coverage and 2.8% did not have health insurance coverage. Private coverage was 70% and public coverage was 42.8%, respectively. The percentage of children under the age of 19 with no health insurance coverage was 1.4%.

In 2019-2023, Erie County, New York had a total population of 950,044 - 487,836 (51.3%) females and 462,208 (48.7%) males. The median age was 40.3 years. An estimated 20.3% of the population was under 18 years, 32.4% was 19 to 44 years, 25.8% was 45 to 64 years, and 18.8 % was 65 years and older.

In 2019-2023, there were 408,711 households in Erie County, New York. The average household size was 2.26 people.

Married-couple households made up 39.9% of the households in Erie County, New York while cohabiting couple households made up 7.5% of households. Female householders with no spouse or partner present were 31.6% of all households, while 21% of households had male householders with no spouse or partner present. Some households had one person, as 15.7% of households were male householders living alone, and 19.4% were female householders living alone, for a total of 35.1% of all households.

In Erie County, New York, 25.1% of all households had one or more people under the age of 18; 32.3% of all households had one or more people 65 years and over.

In 2019-2023, an estimated 92.8% of the people living in Erie County, New York were U.S. natives. 80.8% of the Erie County, New York population were living in the state where they were born.

Approximately 7.2% of Erie County, New York residents in 2019-2023 were foreign-born. 57.7% of foreign-born were naturalized U.S. citizens and an estimated 56.1 % entered the country before the year 2010.

Foreign-born residents of Erie County, New York come from different parts of the world. The bar graph below displays the percentage of foreign-born from each world region of birth in 2019-2023 for Erie County, New York.

Among people at least five years old living in Erie County, New York in 2019-2023, 11.1 % spoke a language other than English at home. Spanish was spoken by 3.4% of people at least five years old; 4.1% reported that they did not speak English "very well."

In 2019-2023, 89.2 % of the people at least one year old living in Erie County, New York were living in the same house one year earlier.

In 2019-2023, 92.4 % of people 25 years and over had at least graduated from high school and 36.9% had a bachelor's degree or higher. An estimated 7.6% did not complete high school.

The total school enrollment in Erie County, New York was 218,473 in 2019-2023. Nursery school enrollment was 13,154 and kindergarten through 12th grade enrollment was 138,796. College or graduate school enrollment was 66,523.

In Erie County, New York, among the civilian noninstitutionalized population in 2019-2023, 13.7 % reported a disability. The likelihood of having a disability varied by age - from 5.2% of people under 18 years old, to 11.5% of people 18 to 64 years old, and to 30.4% of those 65 and over.

In Erie County, New York, 59.6 % of the population 16 and over were employed; 37.3% were not currently in the labor force.

An estimated 78.9% of the people employed were private wage and salary workers; 16.9% were federal, state, or local government workers; and 4.1 % were self-employed in their own (not incorporated) business.

In 2019-2023, the civilian employed population 16 years and older in Erie County, New York worked in the following industries:

An estimated 74.1% of Erie County, New York workers drove to work alone in 2019-2023, and 7.5% carpooled. Among those who commuted to work, it took them on average 21.3 minutes to get to work.

In 2019-2023, Erie County, New York had a total of 439,987 housing units. Of these housing units, 62.1% were single-family houses either not attached to any other structure or attached to one or more structures (commonly referred to as "townhouses" or "row houses"). 36.4% of the housing units were located in multi-unit structures, or those buildings that contained two or more apartments. 1.5% were mobile homes, while any remaining housing units were classified as "other," which included boats, recreational vehicles, vans, etc.

4.7% of the housing inventory was comprised of houses built since 2010, while 29.7% of the houses were first built in 1939 or earlier. The median number of rooms in all housing units in Erie County, New York was 5.9 rooms, and of these housing units 63.4% had three or more bedrooms.

In 2019-2023, Erie County, New York had 408,711 housing units that were occupied or had people living in them, while the remaining 31,276 were vacant. Of the occupied housing units, the percentage of these houses occupied by owners (also known as the homeownership rate) was 65.5% while renters occupied 34.5%. The average household size of owner-occupied houses was 2.42 and in renter-occupied houses it was 1.97.

7.9% of householders of these occupied houses had moved into their house since 2021, while 15.2% moved into their house in 1989 or earlier. Households without a vehicle available for personal use comprised 11.9% and another 13.5% had three or more vehicles available for use.

The following chart provides the primary fuel used to heat houses in Erie County, New York:

In 2019-2023, the median property value for owner-occupied houses in Erie County, New York was $217,400.

Of the owner-occupied households, 58 % had a mortgage. 42% owned their houses "free and clear," that is without a primary mortgage or loan on the house. The median monthly housing costs for owners with a mortgage was $1,571 and for owners without a mortgage it was $641.

For renter-occupied houses, the median gross rent for Erie County, New York was $1,037. Gross rent includes the monthly contract rent and any monthly payments made for electricity, gas, water and sewer, and any other fuels to heat the house.