article

Bloomington (IPA: ) is a city in south central Indiana. Located about 50 miles southwest of Indianapolis, it is the county seat of Monroe County. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city had a total population of 69,291. Bloomington is the 7th largest city in Indiana.

Bloomington is the home of Indiana University's main campus (established in 1820) attended by about 40,000 students and the largest and original campus of the Indiana University system. It is also the home of the Kinsey Institute.

Bloomington's Indiana University campus is regarded as one of the most beautiful university campuses in the U.S. In 1991, Thomas Gaines, a landscape artist, published a book, The Campus As a Work of Art, and in it he named the Bloomington campus one of the five most beautiful campuses in America. Most of the campus buildings are built of Indiana limestone. Due to the presence of the university, Bloomington is more diverse demographically than is typical for the state.

Bloomington has been named a Tree City for more than 20 years. The city was the site of the Academy Award-winning movie Breaking Away, featuring the annual IU bicycle race Little 500.

Bloomington has sister-city relationships with Posoltega, Nicaragua and Santa Clara, Cuba.

Geography

Bloomington is located at (39.162147, -86.529045).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 51.6 km² (19.9 mi²). 51.1 km² (19.7 mi²) of it is land and 0.5 km² (0.2 mi²) of it (1.00%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 69,291 people, 26,468 households, and 10,454 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,356.0/km² (3,511.1/mi²). There were 28,400 housing units at an average density of 555.8/km² (1,439.1/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 87.03% White, 4.24% African American, 0.29% Native American, 5.26% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 1.10% from other races, 2.01% from two or more races, and Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.49% of the population.

Of the households 17.9% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 29.2% were married couples living together, 7.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 60.5% were non-families. 39.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.09 and the average family size was 2.76.

In the city the population was spread out with 12.7% under the age of 18, 42.3% from 18 to 24, 24.6% from 25 to 44, 12.6% from 45 to 64, and 7.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 23 years. For every 100 females there were 94.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.8 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $25,377, and the median income for a family was $50,054. Males had a median income of $32,470 compared to $26,100 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,481. About 10.3% of families and 29.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.3% of those under age 18 and 7.6% of those age 65 or over. However, traditional measures of poverty can be highly misleading when applied to communities with a large proportion of students, such as Bloomington.

Politics

The Democratic Party recently has dominated city politics and has retained the mayor's office since 1972.

Bloomington was one of the first cities in the state to ban smoking in all public and private businesses, including private clubs. It was also the first city in the state to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance protecting employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation. However, it lagged behind Marion County in protecting gender identity.

Monroe County politics show a wider variety of political diversity than do city politics.

Famous residents

Note: This list does not include students attending Indiana University. Please see Indiana University Bloomington for famous alumni.

Nearby points of interest

External links

Cities in Indiana | Monroe County, Indiana | University towns

Bloomington (Indiana) | Bloomington, Indiana | ブルーミントン (インディアナ州) | Bloomington (Indiana) | Bloomington, Indiana

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Bloomington, Indiana".

Home Page • arts • business • computers • games • health • hospitals • home • kids & teens • news • physicians • recreation• reference • regional • science • shopping • society • sports • world