Scituate+Community+Report

The Community of Scituate Hannah Gardner & Samantha Wagner



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Scituate is located in the northern part of Rhode Island, mostly towards the center of the state with a population of about 10,800 citizens. The community is rural in its entirety and is surrounded by Foster, Glocester, Coventry, Cranston, Johnston, and Smithfield. Above is a satellite image of Scituate, Rhode Island. As one can see, it is not urbanized at all. There are a few key topics that describe Scituate as a community - economic well-being, diversity, safety, health, and education - which are elaborated further on.

Economically, Scituate is better off than Rhode Island and the country as a whole. The median income for a household in Scituate is approximately $5,000 more than that of Rhode Island, and almost $10,000 more than that of the United States. However, Scituate's median family income is about $300 less than the state, but still is $8,000 more than that of the country. Scituate's per capita income is the highest compared to the state's and the country's coming in at $28,280, about $1,000 higher than the state's and $2,000 higher than the country's. There are barely any families (1.1%) below the poverty level in Scituate; 7% lower than the state's data and 8% lower than the country's data. Of Scituate's citizens, 2.4% of individuals live below the poverty level, a staggering 9.3% lower than the state and 11% lower than the country. On the other hand, Scituate does have the highest percentage of people 16 years and older working in the labor force at 69.9%, 3% higher than the state and 5% higher than the country. Nonetheless, Scituate still comes out above Rhode Island and the United States in most economic aspects.
 * Income Poverty & Economic Well-Being**

According to the data, Scituate is shown to have a good economic well-being compared to the state. Only 68% of the people participate in the food stamp program whereas 77% of Rhode Island citizens participate. There is a difference of 20% when looking at the children who participate in the school breakfast program in Scituate (9%) and those in Rhode Island as a whole (29%). In addition only 3% of children in Scituate are born with a mother who has less than a high school diploma versus 15% of children in Rhode Island. Finally there are only 1% of children in Scituate with families receiving cash assistance and Rhode Island has 6% of children coming from families that receive cash assistance. The economic well-being of Scituate is much better than the average economic well-being of Rhode Island.

Scituate lacks diversity. Out of the 878,821 white people in Rhode Island, 8,309 of them live in Scituate, which gives Scituate a 98.4% white population. Out of the 55,906 African Americans in the state, 23 of them live in Scituate, creating a percentage of .3%. There are 32 Asians, 55 Hispanics and 7 American Indian or Alaskan Natives living in Scituate. All of the non-white races combined presents a percentage of 1.2%. It is overwhelmingly obvious that Scituate has a population consisting most of Caucasians.
 * Race and Ethnicity**

Scituate also has some other positive indicators that make it one of the better towns in Rhode Island. Out of the 234,821 children in Rhode Island, 2,635 of them live in the town of Scituate. Twelve percent of those children live in single-parent homes, compared to 31% of the children in the state. Only 4.3% of the children are living in households that are below the poverty threshold compared to the 17.5% of Rhode Island. Scituate has a higher percentage of teens that are not working and not in school, 10.1%, compared to the 6% of teens in Rhode Island. However, the population of Scituate is more educated than that of Rhode Island as a whole. Roughly 87.1% of Scituate's population are high school graduates, and 33.6% of the population have a bachelors degree of higher. Scituate is clearly one of the better places to live in the state.
 * Census-Based Indicators**

Overall Scituate is a healthy community. Out of the 84,717 children under the age of 19 in Rhode Island receiving medical assistance only 406 of them live in Scituate. Furthermore, 2.4% of the children in Scituate report elevated blood levels compared to the 4.5% living in the state. The drug use by high school students in Scituate is 3% lower than that of Rhode Island, but the alcohol use among high schoolers is 5% higher than that of the state. Scituate's birth rate however is significantly lower than that of Rhode Island's at 8.1 births; the state's is 30.4 births. Shockingly, the amount of domestic violence incidents resulting in arrest with children present is 38%, almost 10% higher than Rhode Island. Scituate is a generally healthy community but it would be healthier if the domestic violence issue was under control.
 * Health Indicators**

Scituate seems to be a safe community to live in for children compared to Rhode Island as a whole. The child abuse and neglect rate per 1,000 children in Scituate is only 2.3 children whereas it is 10.7 children in Rhode Island. This is a difference of 8.4 children. Rhode Island's rate of children with incarcerated parents per 1,000 children is 11.1 children compared to 3.4 children in Scituate. That is a much smaller number. Unfortunately though the percentage of domestic violence incidents with children present in Scituate is 38% which is 9% higher than that of Rhode Island's. Most of the data displays Scituate as a safe community for children to grow up in but domestic violence must improve for it to be much safer.
 * Safety Indicators**

The education indicators show that Scituate has a better education compared to the average education of Rhode Island even though the differences are not vast. The percentage of 4th graders at or above the reading proficiency level is 79% whereas it is only 68% for the state. As for the eight graders at or above the reading proficiency level, it is 87% for Scituate and 65% for Rhode Island. This shows that the reading proficiency level increases in Scituate as children grow older and decreases in Rhode Island. The fourth graders at or above the math proficiency level is 69% for Scituate and 63% for Rhode Island. The difference between Scituate and Rhode Island for the percentage of eighth graders at or above the math proficiency level is 21% because Scituate is 74% and Rhode Island is 53%. The high school attendance is at 95% for Scituate and 91% for Rhode Island, which shows that only 5% of school-aged people in Scituate do not attend school on a regular basis. Scituate's graduation rate is 10% higher than Rhode Island's since it is 84%. Although this is not an excellent graduation rate, it is still much better than the average Rhode Island school. The suspension rate per 100 students is 2 students less than the state average. One negative education indicator is that children are not in full day kindergarten in Scituate, which may hurt them in their future education. Moreover 8% of the children in Scituate participate in early intervention programs as opposed to 10% of children in the whole state. As for special education, 12% of the students are enrolled in Scituate's program and 18% are enrolled in the state. This could be because there are not many children with special needs in Scituate or they do not have an adequate program for it. Looking at Scituate's education as a whole, it is better than the average education in Rhode Island but not by much and there are a few negative parts of their education system.
 * Education Indicators**