Port Isabel has a young population below the age of 19 years [31.5% or 1,578 residents] but the balance of Cameron County has a higher percentage of population in that cohort [36.3%]. This is the cohort that is or will be in the school attendance age span. Median age is 34.3 years.
The 20 years to 54 years of age cohort comprises 43% of Port Isabel’s population which is almost identical to the balance of Cameron County where it comprises 43.4%. This is the population that will either be enrolled in higher education, employed either in a full-time or part-time employment, most capable of migrating outward and which will also represent the data on unemployment during any quarter.
Traditionally, a community’s stability is anchored in the population in age from 25 to 54 years since this is the cohort that provides the workers, homebuyers, married couples and also the ones who save or set aside funds for retirement. For Port Isabel, the population in this tier represents 36.1% of its residents and again, is almost identical to the 36.8% of this cohort in the balance of Cameron County.
The 55+ year cohort represents 25.59% of the residents of Port Isabel and is not remarkably different from the balance of Cameron County’s 20.4%. This is the population cohort that is entering the twilight of its workforce capacity and is within a decade of retirement.
During the past five years Port Isabel’s average unemployment rate has been one of the better one when compared to Brownsville and the balance of Cameron County [all communities within the county]. Only South Padre Island, which employs many Port Isabel residents, had a lower average unemployment rate than Port Isabel [which has many residents that work on the island]. There appears to be some integrated economic relationship between these two communities and theirs may be a case of shared economies in a small area divided only by a 2.37 mile long bridge.
What is significant is that the unemployment rates in these adjacent communities are significantly lower than Brownsville’s and the balance of Cameron County.
Port Isabel’s total population is 5,006.
