U.S. Population Grows West, Boise Is Big Bopper Of Population

The Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton metropolitan area is the 10th fastest-growing area in the country, the U.S. Census Bureau said Wednesday.

From 1990 to 1996, the Seattle metro area added 350,529 people to its population, the bureau said.

Oregon and Washington helped make the West the fastest-growing region in the nation last year.

From July 1, 1996 to July 1, 1997, the West as a region recorded a 1.6 percent increase in population, including 1.6 percent in Washington and 1.5 percent in Oregon. The national average was 0.9 percent.

Other fast-growing states in the West included Arizona, 2.7 percent; Utah, 2.1 percent and Colorado, 2 percent.

Now at 3.24 million, Oregon’s growth rate actually represented a slowdown from the 1.7 percent year-to-year increases reported in each of the previous three years.

Washington, now at 5.6 million, had shown increases of 1.7 percent, 1.8 percent and 1.5 percent in the three previous years.

From 1990 to 1997, Oregon’s population has grown 14 percent and Washington’s 15.2 percent.

For the 12th straight year, Nevada claimed the top annual growth rate nationally, 4.8 percent, and Las Vegas was the fastest growing metro area for the 1990-96 period, up 41 percent to 1.2 million.

Boise, Idaho, ranked fourth nationally in growth rate for those six years, up 25.9 percent.

The Los Angeles metropolitan area reported the biggest population gain in terms of raw numbers from 1990-96, up 963,626.

Others that finished ahead of Seattle, in order, were Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Washington D.C., New York City, Chicago and San Francisco.

The Seattle metropolitan area grew about 11.7 percent, from 2.99 million in July 1990 to 3.27 million in July 1996.

California’s growth rate had slowed earlier in the decade but grew by 1.3 percent from 1996-97. California added more than 410,000 people from July 1, 1996 to July 1, 1997, by far the largest numerical increase of any state.

Oregon added about 47,000 and Washington about 90,000 over the year.

Among other regions, the South’s growth rate was 1.3 percent, the Midwest’s 0.5 percent and the Northeast’s 0.2 percent.