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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Census: Idaho’s growth uneven in past decade

U.S. Census data for Idaho is out, and it shows that Idaho's population has grown 21.1 percent in the past 10 years to 1,587,582. The state's Hispanic population grew by 73 percent, while its non-Hispanic population grew by 16.7 percent; still, 89.1 percent of Idahoans are white. The state's five most-populated counties: Ada, 392,365, up 40.4 percent; Canyon, 188,923, up 43.7 percent; Kootenai, 183,494, up 27.4 percent; Bonneville, 104,234, up 26.3 percent; and Bannock, 82,839, up 9.6 percent. Eight Idaho counties lost population in the past decade: Shoshone, Clearwater, Elmore, Clark, Butte, Minidoka, Caribou and Bear Lake.

The state's biggest city, by far, is still Boise, at 205,671. It's followed by Nampa at 81,557; Meridian, 75,092; Idaho Falls, 56,813; and Pocatello, 54,255. Coeur d'Alene ranks 7th at 44,137, and Post Falls 10th at 27,574, a whopping 59.9 percent jump for that city in the past 10 years. Here's a link to the Spokesman-Review's interactive mapping and analysis site for the Idaho census data.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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