We are often asked “How are the islands doing?” Lurking behind this question are all sorts of motivations. Islanders want to show how they measure up in the state and the region, and to demonstrate to funders that islands are a sound place to invest in innovative programming. Legislators and policy makers need real data on which to base painful policy decisions about who will get scarce public resources. Journalists are usually looking for story “angles” or “pegs” on which to ground a human-interest story — as in “this struggling island with the smallest population of any Maine island…” Summer people are interested in objective measures or how islands look in the cold light of winter.
With these kinds of questions in mind, we prevailed on the good work and great energy of two of our most experienced Island Fellows – Sarah Curran, who works on Peaks Island, and Jeremy Gabrielson, who works in Washington County – to scour public databases for objective information that point to how islands are doing. The result of their work is available in a new publication, Island Indicators available on our website (www.islandinstitute.org) or in print form for purchase.
Island indicators, of course, are just that–they are suggestive, not definitive statements about conditions of island life. The information we have collected is sometimes frustratingly absent on specific islands, as in the case of many of Portland’s Casco Bay islands where data are buried in overall city totals. Specific numbers for Great Cranberry and Islesford — two different islands in one township — are often combined, although their community profiles are completely different from one another. We should also caution that figures showing percentage changes based on small overall island numbers can be misleading — relatively small absolute changes can lead to large fluctuations, so caution is required in reading the numbers.
Here are a few highlights.
As we reported a number of years ago after the U.S. Census figures were first released, overall island populations increased between 1990 and 2000 by seven percent. Of the 13 islands where individual island data are available, populations were stable or grew on eight of them. Long Island and Cliff were stable over this period. Populations declined slightly on Swan’s, Frenchboro and Matinicus and quite decidedly on Monhegan and the Cranberry Isles. In the Cranberry Isles, most of this decline was on Great Cranberry, not on Islesford.
The median age of all but one island community – North Haven — is higher than the average for the State of Maine, which has a significantly older average age of its population the U.S. as a whole. It is important to realize that in some cases the skewed age structure can represent the addition of recent retirees who contribute significantly to island activities as well as an absence of younger people.
Islanders are decisively better educated than the rest of Maine — 89 percent of islanders have a high school education as of 2000, compared to 85 percent in Maine overall. We should note that Maine ranks near the top of the nation in its percentage of high school graduates. In terms of higher education, 32 percent of islanders have college degrees, while only 23 percent of all Mainers are as well educated. Islanders are also great patrons of their libraries. The average library circulation in Maine’s small communities is approximately five books per capita. All eight island communities for which statistics were available show that circulation rates are at least twice as high. Monhegan’s figure of 40 books per capita is the highest among islands, followed by Islesford, Great Cranberry and Islesboro.
Based on median household income in 2000, most island communities are less wealthy than Maine overall, which trails the U.S. average by over ten percent.
If we look at where islanders earn their incomes (not surprisingly, lobster fishing and tourism are the islands’ two most important economic drivers) the concentration on so few industries gives pause.
Retail sales are reported on a quarterly basis. Thus, if we look at the percentage of taxable sales that occur in the third quarter (reflecting the prior quarter), we get an indicator of a community’s dependence on the summer season for its businesses.
An indicator of how much waterfront usage is currently available for commercial use is suggested by the comparing the total number of public access points to the number of those points where commercial uses are permitted in different island communities. On Frenchboro, Isle au Haut, Matinicus and Monhegan 100 percent of public waterfront is available for commercial use. On Peaks, Great Diamond, Great Cranberry and Islesford, less than a third of public waterfront is available for commercial use.
Finally, we collected figures on the rate of increase of property valuations on Maine islands between 2001 and 2005, compared to Maine as a whole. It should come as no surprise that the rate of property valuation increase significantly exceeded the state average on every Maine island with the exception of Frenchboro and Matinicus. The largest percentage increase in property valuations occurred on Isle au Haut, Islesboro, Long, Cranberry Isles and Monhegan. The Maine State Housing Authority publishes an affordability index that compares median income with median home price. The least affordable islands are Great Cranberry, Great Diamond and Matinicus, peaks and Swan’s. Housing is more affordable, on average, only on Vinalhaven.
This is a lot of information to try to absorb, and it is only a snapshot. We will continue to revisit the data sources and search for new information as it becomes available. In the meantime, the current edition of Island Indicators will hopefully be useful as island community leaders, state policy makers and friends of islands near and far consider the most pressing priorities that need all of our creative energies to address.