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Posts tagged: Idaho population
North Idaho is aging faster than the rest of the state, numbers released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau show. The median age in each of Idaho’s five northern counties rose much more over the past 10 years than did the statewide average; in Kootenai County, the median age rose from 36 in 2000 to almost 39 in 2010. In Bonner County, the jump was from 40.8 to 45.8. In Shoshone County, it went from 41.8 to 46.2. In Boundary County, it rose from 38.3 to 42.8 and in Benewah County, from 39.2 to 44.8. Statewide, the median age in 2010 was 34.6, up from 33.2 in 2000. You can read S-R reporter Alison Boggs' full story here, and check our our interactive, searchable Idaho census data site here.
A quarter of Idaho’s 200 cities lost population from July 1, 2008 to July 1, 2009, according to the Idaho Department of Labor and the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s higher than the previous year, but still well below the number of Idaho cities that lost population following the last big recession in 2001. Statewide, Idaho’s population grew 1.2 percent during the year in question to 1,545,801; rural areas gained slightly while cities lost residents. You can read a full report here from the Idaho Department of Labor, including population figures for each of the 200 Idaho cities.
Rural Idaho residents have been staying put during the current recession, unlike during the previous recession, when they moved in large numbers to the state’s urban areas. “The length and depth of the current recession … has severely impeded the ability, and the rationale, for people to move,” Idaho’s Department of Labor reported. This according to a state analysis of the latest U.S. Census figures for city populations. Until the current downturn, Idaho had been seeing a steady migration from its rural areas to its urban ones, a trend that was even more pronounced when the state’s economy was booming. But that was when the draw of the bigger cities promised jobs. Said Labor spokesman Bob Fick, “The biggest job losses have been in the city.” You can read my full story here in today’s Spokesman-Review.
Idaho’s Hispanic population has continued to increase at three times the rate of non-Hispanics, according to the latest U.S. Census figures. Overall, 10.2 percent of Idahoans are Hispanic, but the census found that in nine of Idaho’s 44 counties, all in southern Idaho, the figure was greater than 20 percent. The population of tiny Clark County is 40.4 percent Hispanic; Minidoka County, 30.2 percent; and Jerome County, 27.3 percent.
Meanwhile, Idaho’s median age increased by a month to 34 years and five months, while the median age for Hispanic residents dropped more than three months to 23 years and eight months. “The trend toward youth in the rapidly growing Hispanic population suggests the economic and political influence of the state’s largest minority could grow substantially as Hispanic families become more and more established,” reported Bob Fick of the Idaho Department of Labor, who analyzed the population figures.
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