On December 21, 2010, the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce released the first report derived from the 2010 Census. The Bureau will be releasing more information in the coming months. As the data may imply various economic conditions, this is the first of many articles I will be writing on the subject.
As the history of our country is highly correlated to various migration moments, the 2010 Census shows a continuing migration to the South and West regions of the country. In the 20th century the South and West regions grew by double digits in each decade.
In 1910 the New York population was 9.1 million with a growth of 25.4%, the highest percentage population increase for the state since the 1910 Census. In 1910 many Western states were growing by 30% to 60%. NY continued to grow at double digits until the 1940 Census when the population growth dropped to 7.1%.
The census of 1950 and 1960 once again reported NY growing at double digits of 10% and 13.2% respectively. Since 1970 the Census Bureau reported NY’s population growing at a minimal range of a low of -3.7% in 1980 to a high of 8.7% in 1970. In 2010 the NY population grew by only 2.1% with a population of 19.3 million, the second slowest growth rate since the 1910 Census.
In perspective, the nation’s largest population growth was 21% in 1910 with a population of 92.2 million. The lowest growth was 7.3% in 1940. In 2010 the nation grew by 9.7% with a population of 308.7 million. In 2010 the South and West regions grew by 14.3% and 13.8% respectively. The Northeast and Midwest grew by only 3.2% and 3.9% respectively. Since the 1910 Census, this is the second slowest growth rate for the Northeast. In 1980 the Northeast increased by only 0.2%
On occasion, some states will have a decreasing period or two. However the District of Columbia has shown the most consistent decrease in population from the 1960 Census to the 2000 Census. In 2010 the DC area experienced the first population growth of 5.2% since the 1950 Census.
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