Amid the expensive homes and sparkling ocean views that helped make Orange County famous, consider these stereotype-smashing facts: Nearly 9 percent of us 25 or older never passed the ninth grade. Another 18 percent never made it out of high school.

Thirty-one percent of our county’s 3.05 million residents were born in another country. Nearly half of us speak a language other than English at home. And more than a third of us rent apartments rather than fulfill the American dream of home ownership.

Those data, released this month by the U.S. Census Bureau, are in stark contrast with our national reputation as a mecca for conservative politics, glamorous surfers and privileged housewives.

“By and large, people’s impressions of a place are about 20 years out of date,” said Dowell Myers, professor of urban planning and demography at the USC Price School of Public Policy. “They remember the trends that were happening and assume they’re still going on.”

The statistics are included in the American Community Survey, an oftentimes astonishing picture of who our neighbors are, how they’re living and what the future of our county might be. The numbers reflect a nationwide trend of slower birth rates, financially struggling young adults and a slowdown in immigration, especially to pricey California and Orange County, Myers said.

Consider the age breakdown for Orange County:

• 19.6 percent of us are 14 years old or younger.

• 14.6 percent of us are between 15 and 24.

• 42.8 percent of us are between 25 and 54.

• 23 percent are 55 or older.

“It’s becoming more like Santa Barbara: high prices. Nice quality of life. Not enough young people,” Myers said. “The bottom of the generation is eroding, nationwide.”

The survey provides a detailed look at five years’ worth of demographics, and the numbers also show just how diverse we continue to be, not just ethnically but through wealth, education and lifestyles.

Twelve percent of us live on income levels below the poverty line. Nearly 9 percent of Orange County’s 712,753 families with children under 18 live in poverty. That figure soars if you consider only families led by women, with no husband present: 21 percent of them live below the poverty line.

Of the families in poverty, 25.5 percent are led by someone who did not graduate from high school; 3.2 percent are led by someone with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Nearly a fifth of us don’t have health insurance, and a third of us earn less than $50,000 annually. But more than half of us – 56.4 percent – earn more than $50,000 but less than $200,000. The big earners – those earning more than $200,000 – account for 10.2 percent of us.

The median income? $75,422.

“Orange County is a well-rounded metropolitan area all to itself,” Myers said. “It includes both highs and lows in every respect.”

Our ethnic makeup offers few surprises: Most of our approximately 926,524 foreign-born residents are from Latin America (46.6 percent) or Asia (44.4 percent). Latinos account for 33.8 percent of the county’s total population; Asians 18.3 percent.

You also won’t find many people dependent on public transportation in Orange County: Of the approximately 1.4 million workers age 16 or older, only 2.8 percent use public transportation to get to work. The vast majority – 78 percent – drive themselves.

The average amount of time it takes them to get to work? Twenty-six minutes.

The numbers also show who makes a living doing what.

Many of us – 39.7 percent – earn our money in management, business, science and arts. Another big group of us – 26.3 percent – work in sales and offices, and 17.2 percent hold jobs in the service industry.

Jobs in production, transportation and material moving employ 10 percent of our workforce, and 6.9 percent of us work natural resources, construction and maintenance-related jobs.

The survey is controversial to some and highly detailed: questions range from the size and room count in your home to the amount of time it takes you to get to work. The Census Bureau mails the survey to about 3.5 million households with a notice that citizens are required to respond and could be fined if they don’t.

The survey is considered useful in numerous areas of American life: From congressional budget allocations to home construction and business development, people look to the numbers to tell them where people are in America and what they’re like. New data about a community can guide policymakers and help business officials decide when and where to expand.

“Everyone from school boards to fire departments to Realtors and homebuilders rely on the American Community Survey,” said Armando Mendoza, a U.S. Census Bureau data dissemination specialist who works in Orange County.

The survey began in 2005, with the first data released in 2008. A trip down the data-dug rabbit hole also can produce seemingly random trivia. Of Orange County:

• Most of our students are either still mastering the basics, or they’ve been there and done that ages ago: 37.4 percent of Orange County’s 868,966 students are in elementary school; 31.4 percent are in college or graduate school.

• We live near the Camp Pendleton Marine base, but not as many of us are veterans as you might think. Out of those of us 18 or older, 5.7 percent claim veteran status.

• Our needs increase as we age: 7.8 percent of the roughly 3 million people whom the U.S. Census Bureau classifies as the “Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population” live with a disability. For those 65 or older, it jumps to 31.6 percent.

• Most of us are stable, at least somewhat. Of those who have lived here a year or longer, 84.9 percent of us live in the same house as last year. Of the 14.4 percent who moved, 10.7 percent were within Orange County. Just 1.1 percent were from out of state. That unaccounted-for 0.7 percent? They were living abroad.

• We’re from everywhere, but the most common ancestral ethnicity is German (10 percent), followed by Irish (7.6 percent), then English (7.2 percent).

• We like private schools, but most of our children are in public schools. Of the 568,047 children ages 3 to 17 who are enrolled in school, 86.8 percent attend a public school. The rest – 13.2 percent – are privately educated.

• Public assistance helps us. Of the 731,235 households with children under the age 18 living there, 17.8 percent benefit from Supplemental Security Income, cash public assistance income or food stamps.

The data also include a detailed look at the long-festering issue of millennials: what they’re doing, how much they’re earning, where they’re going and where they’re living. But the picture isn’t pretty.

First, that age category is dwindling. In 1990, people ages 18 to 34 comprised 32.5 percent of Orange County’s population. But that didn’t grow with the population. In 2000, it was 25.6. And between 2009 and 2013, according to the survey, it was 24 percent.

Millennials also are earning less than their predecessors. For people in the 18-to-34 group, the median income in 1990 was $43,395. In 2000, it was $42,156. Over the last five years, it’s dropped to $37,392.

That has consequences many parents experience firsthand: According to the survey, just 25.4 percent of millennials lived with their parents in 2000. Now it’s 37.9 percent.

The decline is part of a national trend, warns Myers. “Those kids are your future workers,” Myers said. “If they’re not in the pipelines, they’re not going to show up.”

Contact the writer: 949-492-5122 or mcuniff@ocregister.comTwitter: @meghanncuniff