Wilmington State of Child Report

LANGUAGES: ESPAÑOL // នៅដើម

Wilmington has a total of 63,305 residents, the majority of whom live in families with children aged 0 to 5. The overwhelming majority of families in Wilmington are Latinx. White, Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (NHPI) and American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) residents make up a smaller portion of the population. The median household income for Wilmington is lower than neighboring census tracts in the South Bay, ranging from $40,000 to $60,000 per household. Nearly one third of families with children under the age of 5 live in poverty. With Latinx individuals making up about 86 percent of the total population, it is important to understand the limitations that many data sources have in representing the diversity of Latinx communities. Most data sources do not disaggregate within Latinx groups, making it difficult to comprehend unique needs within the community.

Geography: Best Start Region 4 (Wilmington and Central Long Beach)
Data Source: California Department of Social Services CDSS, Data downloaded 06/10/2021. Data Note: Family Child Care Homes are excluded from this map because complete addresses are unavailable for mapping. Family Child Care Homes are a crucial component to the child care landscape, and are often run by immigrant women of color. Addresses of family child care homes are unavailable as these are the personal homes of the providers.

This map shows all the open and closed licensed childcare facilities in and around the Central Long Beach and Wilmington zip codes as of June 10th, 2021. The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on childcare availability is widely known at this point (to read more, refer to the report) and has left both providers and families struggling. Investing in more ECE facilities and providers is crucial to ensuring that children have enough available seats and providers receive proper amount of financial supports needed to carry out the essential services they supply. 

Family childcare homes are another critical part of the childcare landscape and are often run by immigrant women of color. Family childcare homes are not included on this map because addresses of these homes are unavailable as these are the personal homes of the providers.

Subsidized ECE is available for infants, toddlers, and Kindergarten (pre-K) children. However, there is a gap between eligibility and enrollment, largely due to lack of access, leaving large groups of young children without essential developmental supports. In 2018, nearly 84 percent of Wilmington infants and toddlers eligible for subsidized ECE were not enrolled in a qualifying program. For pre-K children in Wilmington, nearly 40 percent are eligible for subsidized pre-K but not enrolled in a qualifying program.

While California offers several subsidized programs to serve children 0-5 from low-income families, the state has not allocated funding to serve all eligible children. Even when there are increases in slots to serve more children, there are other barriers to accessing ECE services: a lack of lack of capacity in under-resourced communities to navigate the application process, a lack of available facilities to open ECE programs, a complicated and cost-prohibitive licensing process, and low rates that the state pays ECE providers that do not fully cover the cost of care. These barriers can lead to instability in access to ECE programs, particularly in communities with greatest need.

Geography: LAUSD Board District 7 & Long Beach Unified School District
Data Source: California Department of Education.
Data Note: School data is from the 2018-2019 school year for the suspension and chronic absenteeism rates. All other school data is from the 2019-2020 school year.

This map represents all schools in the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), and Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)-District 7. Children living in Central Long Beach are most likely attending schools in LBUSD, and children living in Wilmington are most likely attending schools in LAUSD-District 7. When you click on a school, a pop-up will show data on high school graduation, UC/CSU eligibility, chronic absenteeism, suspension rate and student homelessness data related to that school. Please note that elementary and middle schools will not have data for high school graduation rates or UC/CSU eligibility. 

The majority of students in Wilmington are Latinx. These students have the lowest rate of college preparedness when it comes to fulfilling UC/CSU requirements. Asian students are fulfilling the UC/CSU prerequisites at almost twice the rate of Latinx students. 

Chronic absence plays a critical role in student achievement because of the lost learning opportunities. Schools with high or disparate rates of chronic absenteeism might fail to sufficiently engage families and communities, not understand language or cultural barriers, have poor student-teacher relationships, and use excessively punitive discipline policies, which all contribute to reducing student connectedness.

Geography: Region 4 Best Start Geographies
Data Source: American Community Survey, 2015-2019 5-Year Estimate.
Data Note: Data is in 2019 Inflation-Adjusted Dollars.

Historically, redlining dissuaded banks from approving loans for people of color in the “desirable” parts of the neighborhood with less pollution. Even today, the median household income in this region is relatively low compared to neighboring areas such as Ranchos Palos Verdes, a wealthy community made up of largely White residents. The map presents a visual breakdown of communities by census tract of their average median household income from lowest to highest. In Wilmington, the average median household income can range anywhere from $45K to $55K. In Central Long Beach, the average median household income can range anywhere from $30K to $60K. Just miles over, Rancho Palos Verdes residents have an average median household income above $200K. 

Single females head nearly one-fourth of families in Wilmington. Fifteen percent of these families have children aged 0 to 6, and they are likely to be families of color.  One national study found that 51 percent of Black children live with a single parent compared to 17 percent of White children. 
Ensuring the wellness of children requires that women heads of households receive the support they need to take care of themselves and their children.  Women, especially immigrant women of color, are more likely to work lower-paid jobs, shoulder childcare responsibilities, and receive less pay compared to their male counterparts. Reduced childcare options in the COVID-19 pandemic have also forced many women to leave the workforce. Centering women in systems change work is an opportunity to uplift the young children and families they support.

The percentage of children living in poverty in Wilmington is high, with 30 percent of families with young children living in poverty. The median household income in Wilmington is also much lower compared to Palos Verdes and other parts of the South Bay. With constrained incomes, rent burden becomes an increasingly critical issue. Latinx families in Wilmington spend nearly 30 percent of their overall income on rent. If a family spends nearly one-third of their income on rent, they likely do not have savings for other critical household needs.

Geography: Best Start Region 4
Data Source: 2015-2017 Cal Enviro Screen 4.0 & 2021 Green

The South Bay area is historically known for having some of the worst rates of air quality as a result of being in close proximity to two international industrial ports. The map visualizes the pollution burden percentile measured by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and the parks in region 4 identified by GreenInfo Network. The map shows that the majority of Central Long Beach and Wilmington are in areas with high average pollution burden percentiles. While Central Long Beach shows a couple of parks in the area, a quick zoom will show that the overwhelming majority of them are in areas with high pollution and ultimately, poor air quality. 

Geography: Best Start Region 4
Data Source: 2019 USDA Food Access & 2018 LA City Geohub. 

Data Note: The indicator measures low income & low food access to determine food accessibility. This map includes farmers markets that are within 5 miles of the Best Start Region 4 geography.

Food issues in Wilmington include lack of access to affordable and healthy food as well as the cultural and language capacities of foodservice providers. Only 71.9 percent of Harbor parents rated their community’s access to fresh fruits and vegetables as good or excellent compared to 78.2 percent of County parents overall in 2018.  The California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) reports that 77.5 percent of SPA 8 adults usually have affordable fresh fruits and vegetables in their neighborhood, which aligns with Los Angeles County as a whole. Rates vary by race/ethnicity with South Bay White adults reporting affordable fresh fruits and vegetables in their neighborhood at higher rates than Latinx and Black adults. 

The RACE COUNTS – PUSH LA report, Reimagining Traffic Safety & Bold Political Leadership in Los Angeles, makes clear that Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) traffic stops and arrests are racially and economically biased, costly for communities, and an inefficient means of advancing traffic safety. An analysis of data for this report shows that traffic stops and arrests in the Wilmington area are not materially different from those the LAPD makes county-wide.

In Wilmington, Latinx drivers were most likely to be stopped by police. Yet despite making up the majority of the population, Latinx drivers were stopped and arrested at slightly lower rates than other racial/ethnic groups. Black drivers, however, were stopped more than 3,500 times, at a rate more than three times the rate of stops for all races.

Latinx drivers were most likely to be arrested, with 110 arrests in the past three years, though at a rate slightly below the rate for all races. Black drivers were arrested at nearly three times the arrest rate for all races.