NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

August 13, 1998

More Vehicles Available to North Dakotans

The proportion of North Dakota households that had one or more vehicles available for use grew from 86.8 percent in 1960 to 93.5 percent (225,147 households) in 1990, according to the recent Population Bulletin released from the North Dakota State Data Center at North Dakota State University. Of those households, nearly one-fourth had three vehicles in 1990, up from 3.6 percent in 1960.

The greatest shift in vehicles available during the last three decades occurred between 1970 and 1980 for households with three or more vehicles, says Richard Rathge, data center director. There were 8,349 households with three or more vehicles in 1970, but by 1980, the number of households with three or more vehicles had swelled to 54,348—a 550-percent increase.

In 1990, females living alone constituted the largest proportion of households not having access to a vehicle—64 percent. One-third of one-vehicle households were comprised of females living alone. Married couples accounted for 28 percent of the one-vehicle households, and males living alone represented 21 percent of these households. Households having two or more vehicles available in 1990 were primarily comprised of married couples—80.3 percent.

Renter-occupied households represented the majority with one or no vehicles in 1990. Households with two or more vehicles were mostly owner occupied.

Among the other findings were these: one, households having more vehicles tended to have higher incomes. Two, of the households that had no vehicles available, the largest proportion earned less than $10,000 in 1990. Three, the largest proportion of households having four vehicles earned between $50,000 and $75,000. And four, another indicator of vehicle availability was the number of workers in the family; larger proportions of households with several vehicles had more workers than households with fewer vehicles.

[EDITORS: TO LOCALIZE, SEE COUNTY DATA IN BLUE PUBLICATION FOLLOWING THIS STORY: "VEHICLES AVAILABLE FOR USE IN NORTH DAKOTA, 1990." THIS PUBLICATION IS ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE STATE DATA CENTER, BOX 5636, NDSU, FARGO, ND 58105]

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Source: Richard Rathge (701) 231-8621

Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136