Herald staff and news services
Apparently sun is more attractive than rain.
While Washington was among the 15 fastest growing states the past year, it was easily outpaced by a bevy of Southern and Southwestern states, according to newly released Census Bureau estimates.
The state gained an estimated 94,000 people between April 2000 and July of this year, leaving it just short of breaking the 6 million mark.
The growth rate of 1.6 percent left the state tied for 11th place with Utah and Delaware. Out-of-state arrivals accounted for 55 percent of Washington’s growth, while births made up the rest, according to the bureau.
Nevada, Arizona and Colorado top the list of the country’s fastest-growing states the past year, Census Bureau estimates show. States in the Midwest and along the East Coast lagged behind the rest of the nation.
North Dakota and West Virginia had the steepest declines, as slower economies continued to chase residents out of state while failing to attract enough newcomers to take their place.
The opposite occurred in Sun Belt states such as Nevada, according to the bureau’s first updated population estimates since the April 1, 2000 census. Lured by the warm climate and tourism industry, Nevada’s population climbed 5.4 percent by July 1, 2001 to 2.1 million.
"I hesitate to say when growth is going to stop. There’s been a long westward movement in this country," said John Haaga, a demographer with the nonprofit Population Reference Bureau.
"More recently, it stopped being movement to the West Coast and filled in" other Western states, he said.
Overall, the U.S. population grew 1.2 percent during the same period from 281.4 million to 284.8 million.
Weather and more vibrant economies have drawn more people to Southern and Western states than other regions of the country for decades. Cities such as Atlanta, Las Vegas and Denver act as a hub for growth spilling out into new, sprawling suburbs. A move to a bigger house or more land in the suburbs typically also means a longer commute for people working in big cities.
That suburban growth marked the rise in New Hampshire’s population the past year, up nearly 2 percent to 1.3 million — the only state among the 10 fastest-growing located outside the South or West.
Much of that increase in New Hampshire came along the state’s approximately 17 mile-long coastline between Massachusetts and Maine, an area that more Boston workers are willing to commute from, said Tyler Young, an assistant planner for the New Hampshire Office of Planning.
The important thing, though, is that those towns are not as densely packed as the New York City suburbs, said Barry Russo, of Rye, N.H. He moved from Ridgewood, N.J., outside New York, three years ago and wants to help government planners in his new hometown.
"It’s definitely a more rural feel. It’s a seacoast area, so development could overwhelm it," Russo said. "If I could prevent the ‘Jerseyfication’ of it, I’d like to be aware of it."
Most of the trends in the latest report mirrored trends between 1990 and 2000, Haaga said.
In Washington, the growth rate was similar to rates in the mid- to late 1990s.
For instance, North Dakota saw the biggest population drop the past year — down 1.2 percent to 634,448. No state lost population between 1990 and 2000, but North Dakota did have the smallest increase — up by less than 1 percent.
West Virginia, Iowa and Louisiana were the only other states to decline the past year — all by less than 1 percent. Pennsylvania, New York, Nebraska and Ohio all had slight increases.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
