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Townhall…
If Demography
Is Destiny, Good News for Texas, D.C.
by Michael Barone
Jan 03, 2013
Demographics buffs get a special Christmas present every year courtesy
of the Census Bureau: its annual estimates of the populations of the 50
states and the District of Columbia. This gives demographers a chance
to see where the nation is growing and where it is not, and to get an
idea of the destination of immigrants and of the flow of people into
one set of states and out of another.
Nationally, the Census Bureau estimates that the United States has
grown from 308 million people when the Census was conducted in April
2010 to almost 313 million in July 2012, a rate of 1.7 percent. If that
continues through the decade, the nation's population will rise at a
lower rate but by a larger number in this decade than it did in
2000-2010.
The fastest growth in the last two years has been in two small enclaves
-- in the District of Columbia (5.1 percent), thanks to the federal
government and gentrification, and in North Dakota (4 percent), thanks
to the Bakken shale oil boom.
Neither is up to 700,000 people yet, though North Dakota, after nearly
a century in the 600,000s, is almost there.
The next-fastest growth rate is in the giant state of Texas. Its
population rose 3.6 percent, to 26 million. This single state accounts
for 18 percent of total U.S. population growth.
Two other states grew more than 3 percent, Utah and Colorado, thanks to
high birth rates and newcomers eager to live near ski areas. And
Florida, where growth stagnated after the housing bust, grew at 2.7
percent.
Read the rest of the article at Townhall
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