Coonen Be Happier® Investments

Executive Summary

Purpose and Method of this report

Coonen Be Happier Investments has been granted the opportunity to capitalize an extensive amount of money into a new business that is located in Jacksonville, FL. This imposes the question of what is the age structure of the overall population breakdown in Jacksonville compared to the State of Florida and the U.S. as a whole. The spatial analyst of Coonen Be Happier Investments investigated the population structure of Jacksonville as well the overall cultural and service sectors of the city.

The population data was taken from the U.S. Census using ACS data for 2015 for Jacksonville City, Florida.

· First part of investigating the structure of the population is assessing a population pyramid. Population pyramids are graphic representations of a given areas’ population structure, which is broken down into two parts: gender and age.
· Dependency ratios were also calculated for the Jacksonville population data.
· Location Quotient can also be used as part of the structural breakdown of the population.

Findings and conclusions

After conducting the analysis that breaks down the structure of the population for Jacksonville, FL, many of the suggested proposals for the investment will not work well enough to create a profit. The dependency ratio also concludes that there is no growing lower population or large number of retirees. Due to this stationary pyramid shape, Coonen Be Happier Investments would want to focus their investments on the working class.

After first identifying the total Hispanic population, it was clear that there was not a large population of Hispanics in Jacksonville. The U.S. has 17.1% Hispanic population, where Jacksonville only has 8.5%. After the dependent population, retirees, and Hispanic population were eliminated from the possibilities for investing, another variable had to be analyzed.

U.S. has moved toward the tertiary and quaternary sectors, these six sectors consist of 63.9% of Florida’s industries and 64.5% of Jacksonville’s industries. In short, the Service Industries for Jacksonville have a significant impact on the economy due to the large opportunity for workers and has a low dependency ratio. Therefore, there is taxes going back into the economy and potential for job growth.

Recommendations for the investment

After reviewing all of the data, Coonen Be Better should invest their money into the working class. Considering, there is a University in Jacksonville, there will be plenty of graduates continually coming from the University looking for a job. However, even though the Educational Industry is the largest service industry in Jacksonville, the money could be invested more efficiently. The Professional Sector, Finance, and Arts are also a large part of the industries. To prevent great competition in our company, investing within one of those three sectors would be a great business choice.

1 Introduction

1.1 Purpose of this study

Coonen Be Happier Investments has been granted the opportunity to capitalize an extensive amount of money into a new business that is located in Jacksonville, FL. For the moment, the money does not have a particular business that it will be assisting yet. One employee expressed in interest in developing a business model that will fit the needs of the growing population of young children. Another employee wants to direct the funds to retirees to create revenue. Another approach would be to invest the money into Hispanic populations. This imposes the question of what is the age structure of the overall population breakdown in Jacksonville compared to the State of Florida and the U.S. as a whole. The spatial analyst of Coonen Be Happier Investments investigated the population structure of Jacksonville as well the overall cultural and service sectors of the city.

1.2 Scope of this study, sources, and methods

First part of investigating the structure of the population is assessing a population pyramid. Population pyramids are graphic representations of a given areas’ population structure, which is broken down into two parts: gender and age. Each pyramid also has two sides, one for male and one for female. The first cohort is 0 to 4, second 5 to 9, and so on, all the way to 85%. The cohorts represent the percent of total population for males and females in each cohort. The population data was taken from the U.S. Census using ACS data for 2015 for Jacksonville City, Florida.

Dependency ratios were also found for the Jacksonville population data. This ratio is a simple calculation that compares youth and elderly populations to the population of the working ag: DR = 100 * (P_0-14+ P₆₅₊) / P_15-64.

Location Quotient can also be used as part of the structural breakdown of the population. The LQ is a measure of concentration that indicates the geographical concentration of a particular variable in a certain region compared to another geographical area. The closer the number is to 1, if not one, means that the city, county, or state has the exact make-up as the US.

2 Findings and Discussion

The findings will be demonstrated in three categories:

· Population Pyramids
· Dependency Ration
· Location Quotient

2.1 Population Pyramid

Population pyramids illustrates the age and sex of a given population. The shape of a pyramid allows for a number of assumptions. This particular population pyramid, shown in Figure 1, demonstrates a stationary population that also has a declining birth rate, low death rate, and a long life expectancy.

Figure 1. Population Pyramid of Jacksonville, FL separated by % Male and % Female based on a series of age cohorts.

Based on this pyramid, the higher concentration of population on both sides is in the 25 to 29 years cohort and the 50 to 54 years cohort. Even though the middle is convex, the population is still greater than the top and the bottom. These areas are also highly correlated to the working class.

2.2 Dependency Ratio

The Dependency Ratio looks at three different cohorts:

P_0-14= Population in the 0-14 age group, also known as the Youth Dependency Ratio (YDR)

P₆₅₊= Population in the 65+ age group, also known as the Elderly Dependency Ratio (EDR)

P_15-64= Population in the 15 to 64 age group

By using the total population data from the U.S. Census the equation can be written out as:

DR = 100 * (P0-14 + P65+) / P15-64 = (166,002 + 102,481) / 578468 = 0.46 = 46.4%

Since the dependency ratio is at 46.4%, it can be concluded that the working age is more prominent in the city of Jacksonville. If a dependency ratio was high, those of working age face a greater burden in supporting the aging population. In this case, the dependents and the retired make up less of the total population than the working class.

2.3 Location Quotient

The total population is firs defined in the four categories and then broken down into Total Pop. 0-14, Total pop. 65+, Total Hispanic Pop., and Total White Pop. The percentages of each category is also defined in Table 1, as well, in order to calculate the location quotient.

Table 1. Online Census Data of Total Population for various groups and their percentages of the total population based on city, county, state, and U.S.

	Total Population	Total Pop. 0 -14	Percent Pop. 0-14	Total Pop. 65+	Percent Pop. 65+	Total Hispanic Pop.	Percent Hispanic Pop.	Total White Pop.	Percent White Pop.
Jacksonville	846,951	166,002	19.6%	102,481	12.1%	72,338	8.5%	508,704	60%
Duval County	890,673	171,900	19.3%	108,662	12.2%	74,775	8.4%	547,556	61.5%
Florida	19,645,772	3,339,781	17%	3,634,468	18.5%	4,660,733	23.7%	14,934,702	76%
United States	316,515,021	61,087,399	19.3%	44,312,102	14%	54,232,205	17.1%	232,946,055	73.6%

After calculated each of the Location Quotients (LQ) in Table 2, it is concluded that the variable with closest make-up of the U.S. is the LQ (white). With a value of 1.03, it is the closest to 1. Many of the values are greater than the U.S., meaning that the population is over representative of the U.S. total population. However, the LQ (Pop. 0-14) is actually lower than 1 at 0.88. Therefore, the population is lower than the U.S. total percentage.

Table 2. Location Quotient for town, city, and state.

Due to the fact much of the U.S. has moved toward the tertiary and quaternary sectors, the numbers for Jacksonville and Florida separately were looked at. To learn what service sectors reside in Florida and Jacksonville the data for Finance, Professional, Educational, Arts, Other, and Public Administration, as well as their proportion of the total state population, were compiled into Table 3 below.

Table 3. Service sectors that reside in Florida and Jacksonville such as Finance, Professional, Educational, Arts, Other, and Public Administration, as well as their proportion of the total state population.

Service Industries - State	Percent of total state Industries	Service Industries – Jacksonville	Percent of total Jacksonville Service Industries	Jacksonville location quotient
1 Finance	7.7%	1 Finance	11.6%	1.51
2 Professional	12.7%	2 Professional	12.5%	.98
3 Educational	21.3%	3 Educational	20.5%	.96
4 Arts	12.2%	4 Arts	10.1%	.83
5 Other Services	5.4%	5 Other Services	4.9%	.91
6 Public Administration	4.6%	6 Public Administration	4.9%	1.07

These 6 sectors make up 63.9% of Florida’s industries and 64.5% of Jacksonville’s industries. It is easy to see that based on the location quotient for Jacksonville in Table 3, that many of them are close to the same make up. For example, Professional, Educational, Other Services, and Public Administration are within .1 away from the value of 1.

3 Conclusions

After conducting the analysis that breaks down the structure of the population for Jacksonville, FL, many of the suggested proposals for the investment will not work well enough to create a profit. The population pyramid suggests that the most populated cohorts were in 25 to 29 years and 50 to 54 years. The population between the cohorts was also greater than the ends as well. The dependency ratio also concludes that there is no growing lower population or large number of retirees. Due to this stationary pyramid shape, Coonen Be Happier Investments would want to focus their investments on the working class.

After first identifying the total Hispanic population, it was clear that there was not a large population of Hispanics in Jacksonville. The U.S. has 17.1% Hispanic population, where Jacksonville only has 8.5%. In the town, county, state, and U.S., the total white population percentage was nearly two-thirds to three-quarters of the population. Meaning, that the white population is the dominate population for the city. When the Location Quotient was calculated for particular areas, it can be justified that Jacksonville and Florida are a close match-up to the U.S. total population.

After the dependent population, retirees, and Hispanic population were eliminated from the possibilities for investing, another variable had to be analyzed. It was shown in the dependency ratio and the population pyramid that working class was the largest population in Jacksonville, FL. Due to the fact much of the U.S. has moved toward the tertiary and quaternary sectors, data for Finance, Professional, Educational, Arts, Other, and Public Administration was analyzed to see if there was any significance. These six sectors consist of 63.9% of Florida’s industries and 64.5% of Jacksonville’s industries.

The Educational Industry had at the largest percentage in Florida and Jacksonville. Florida has a many universities in its state. For the city, this is most likely due to Jacksonville State University and the fact that it is also a Division I school. This large university provides a large number of jobs for this particular area. In reference back to the population pyramid, this would also explain the large number of 20+ year-olds being a largest cohort.

In short, the Service Industries for Jacksonville have a significant impact on the economy due to the large opportunity for workers and has a low dependency ratio. Therefore, there is taxes going back into the economy and potential for job growth.

4 Recommendations

5 References

U.S. Census Bureau. (2016). United States Census Bureau. Retrieved from American Fact Finder: https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml

Geography 352: Business Geography

Monday, February 6, 2017

Assignment 1: Population Dynamics