The U.S. Census Bureau has released demographic profiles of the state, its counties and communities that provide a by-the-numbers breakdown the county’s population.

Some of the nearly 100 demographic items profiled in the latest Census bureau release include sex and age distribution, race, home environments, and the percentage of home-buyers and renters.

Here’s a look at some of the demographic highs and lows in Mercer County’s 3 cities, 14 boroughs and 31 townships.

SEX

Women continue to win the numbers battle of the sexes, but men are gaining, according to state figures. Women made up 52.1 percent of the state’s population in 1990, compared to 51.7 percent last year.

The gender gap is more narrow in Mercer County, which had a population of 120,293 in last year’s Census. Last year, women comprised 51.3 percent of the county population, and there were 3,247 more women than men.

Farrell had the county’s highest percentage of women with 55.5 percent. The largest gender gap by sheer numbers was in Hermitage, where there was a 1,037-woman advantage.

Jackson and Worth townships were equally divided among men and women.

A dozen communities had more men than women. Findley Township was 29.5 percent female, a county low. The all-male State Regional Correctional Facility in Findley, which gave the township a county-high 38 percent growth rate a decade ago, skewed those numbers.

The prison houses at least 800 inmates. Sheakleyville had the second-lowest percentage of women with 48.8.

AGE

Five percent of West Salem Township’s population is 85-years-old or older, more than twice the county (2.2) and state (1.9) percentages.

Is there something in the water?

Probably not. West Salem has the county’s highest concentration of 85-and-oversomethings, and most of them live in the cottages, apartments and health center of St. Paul Homes. Saturday, a spokeswoman at St. Paul’s said about 300 people live in its three facilities. St. Paul’s makes up nearly 10 percent of the population in West Salem Township, which had 3,565 people in the last Census.

Wheatland had the county’s highest concentration of 65-and-oversomethings with 27.7 percent, and Hempfield Township (25.1), West Salem (24.1), Hermitage (23.6) and Farrell (22.6) rounded out the top five. The county percentage was 18.1 and the state’s was 15.6.

Fairview Township had the county’s lowest concentration of 85-and-oversomethings with 0.3 percent, and Findley had the lowest percentage of 65-and-oversomethings with 9.

On the other end of the age spectrum, Lackawannock and New Vernon townships had the highest concentration of children 5 and under with 8.2 percent, and Findley had the lowest with 3 percent. The state average was 5.9 percent and the county average was 5.7 percent.

RACE

Ninety-nine percent of the county’s population said they were of one race -- 93.1 percent considers themselves white, 5.3 black, 0.7 Hispanic, 0.4 Asian, and 0.5 percent of other races. Almost 1 percent said they were of two or more races.

Jackson Center had the county’s highest percentage of whites -- all of its 221 residents said they were white. Hermitage has the largest raw number of whites with 15,344, or 95 percent of its population.

Farrell had the largest black population, both in percentage (46.7 percent) and raw number (2,826). Thirteen communities had no blacks.

Pennsylvania’s Hispanic population has increased by 70 percent since 1990. In last year’s Census, 3.2 percent of the state’s 12,281,054 people was Hispanic. The increase has been less dramatic in Mercer County, but the Hispanic population is growing. It was 0.4 percent in the 1990 Census and 0.6 percent in a 1998 Census estimate. Last year, that number had climbed to 0.7 percent.

Of the county’s 803 Hispanics, 39 percent are Puerto Rican and 25 percent are Mexican. Findley Township had the highest percentage of Hispanics with 4 percent and Wheatland was second with 1.1. Sharon had the largest raw number of Hispanics with 144, less than one percent of its population. Seven communities had no Hispanics.

THE HOME

Mercer County is more family-oriented than the state as a whole, according to Census numbers.

Two-thirds of Pennsylvania’s 4.8 million households were occupied by families last year. In Mercer County, 69.3 percent of the 46,712 households were occupied by families.

Most of the 32,387 families -- 25,609 -- were married couples, and almost 10,000 of those couples had children. Married couples with children made up 21.4 percent of the total households in Mercer County, just under the state’s 21.8 percentage.

Married couples with children made up more than one-third of the households in Fairview and Lake townships, but only 10.9 percent of the households in Farrell. A higher percentage of the households in Farrell -- 14.5 percent -- were occupied by single moms.

Single moms occupied 6.2 percent of the households statewide and 6.1 in Mercer County. Just 1.2 percent of the households -- four -- in Sandy Creek Township were occupied by single moms, and one household in Sheakleyville was. Sheakleyville had the second-lowest percentage, however, because the borough has only 65 households.

Seventeen percent of the 78 households in New Lebanon Township were vacant, a county high. The county average was 6.3 percent and the state average was 9 percent. Only 2.5 percent of East Lackawannock Township’s 584 households were vacant, a county low.

In Mercer County, 23.7 percent of the households were rented and 76.3 percent were owner-occupied. Mercer had the highest percentage of renters with 41.7 and New Lebanon had the lowest with 7.7.

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