The St. Louis region has fewer children today than it did 10 years ago. That's the finding of an analysis by the East-West Gateway Council of Governments done at the request of Vision for Children at Risk.

East-West Gateway (EWG) is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization for the St. Louis region. EWG serves an area made up of the city of St. Louis and the seven surrounding counties: Franklin, Jefferson, St. Charles and St. Louis counties in Missouri; and the Illinois counties of Madison, Monroe and St. Clair.

The tables and maps below describe changes in the child population in these eight jurisdictions between the 2000 Census and the 2010 Census. Note that this eight-county area described here is not identical to the larger 16 county Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). However, over 90 percent of the MSA's population resides in the EWG area.

Table1 shows the distribution of children under age 18 in the EWG region. In all, the region has seen a decline in child population from 651,493 in 2000 to 612,570 in 2010—a decrease of 6 percent in the last decade.

By contrast, the number of children in the United States increased by 2.6 percent. In Missouri, the number of children declined by less than a tenth of one percent. However, in the 110 Missouri counties outside of the EWG area, the number of children increased by about 30,000 (3.5 percent). In Illinois, the number of children decreased by 3.6 percent.

Two counties in the EWG region, experienced growth, while five counties and the city of St. Louis saw a decline in child population between 2000 and 2010. The two counties that experienced growth were Monroe County in Illinois (10.5 percent) and St. Charles County in Missouri (12.9 percent).

Among the six counties that experienced decline, the city of St. Louis had the largest loss, both in absolute number of children and as a percent of total child population. The population of children under age 18 in the City of St. Louis declined by 22,118 individuals, or 24.7 percent between 2000 and 2010. St. Louis County also experienced a decrease of 21,817 children, or 8.5 percent. However, among all other counties in the region, St. Louis County still has the largest number of children under age 18.

Child population declined by 3,191 children (5.0 percent) in Madison County Illinois, by 2,337 children (3.3 percent) in St. Clair County Illinois, by 557 children (2.2 percent), in Franklin County Missouri, and by 282 children (0.5 percent) in Jefferson County Missouri.

Map 1 displays the geographic distribution of children under age 18 in 2000 by ZIP code within each of the counties. Figure 2 displays the geographic distribution of children under age 18 in 2010 by ZIP code within each of the counties. Figures 1 show that in 2000 children under age18 were concentrated in mid-St. Charles County, north and west St. Louis County, and the city of St. Louis. A similar spatial distribution was seen in 2010 (Figure 2). 

Map 3 displays the population density of growth (black dot) and decline (red dot) in child population between 2000 and 2010 by ZIP code within each of the counties.

Growth in the region occurred largely in west St. Charles County (see Figure 3). The area accounted for four of the top five fastest growing ZIP codes in the region, including 63385 (Wentzville, MO), 63366 and 63368 (O’Fallon, MO), and 63376 (Lake St. Louis, MO). In addition, two of top six fastest growing zip codes were located in St. Clair County, including 62221(Belleville, IL) and 62269 (O’Fallon, IL).

The ZIP codes with the greatest child population declines were located in east St. Charles County, north and west St. Louis County, St. Louis City, and northeastern St. Clair County.

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