Arizona, Idaho among fastest-growing states

WASHINGTON – Arizona has ended Nevada’s 19-year reign as the nation’s fastest-growing state, fueled by immigrants and Americans moving from other states.

At the other end of the scale, Louisiana lost nearly 220,000 people – more than any other state – in the year following Hurricane Katrina, according to population estimates released Friday by the Census Bureau.

Arizona led the nation with a population growth rate of 3.6 percent in the past year, followed by Nevada, Idaho, Georgia and Texas.

“There are housing developments sprouting everywhere, whether they are on former farmland or in the desert,” said Tom Rex, associate director of the Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research at Arizona State University. The pace of development has strained Arizona’s resources and preoccupied local officials, Rex said.

Arizona added about 32,000 immigrants in the past year. It added four times that many people who were relocating from other states. The biggest donor state: California.

“It used to be merely a retirement magnet for Midwest seniors,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. “Now it’s also a front door for immigrants from Mexico and an escape hatch for Californians seeking affordable housing.”

The Census Bureau estimates annual state population totals using local records of births and deaths, IRS records of people moving within the United States and census statistics on immigrants. The bureau does not distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants.

Among the findings for 2006:

“Texas gained the most people, about 580,000, followed by Florida, California, Georgia and Arizona.

“North Carolina broke into the top 10 in total population, nudging New Jersey to 11th.

“Four states and the District of Columbia lost population: Louisiana, New York, Rhode Island and Michigan.