The Census has released its population estimates for 2020

[US 89]

A quick look at Utah, the fastest growing state in the country.

Most of the growth is concentrated in the greater Wasatch Front region, but it's not the core urban areas. The fastest growing parts of Utah are exurban areas, especially in mountain valleys to the east of the main urban corridor. Wasatch County grew an incredible 50% over the last ten years, and Morgan County grew 32%. Tooele County to the west of Salt Lake saw similar rapid growth (28% increase). Utah County grew 26% - although that's one of the core urban counties, I would imagine the vast majority of its growth was in the exurban areas south of Provo and west of Lehi. The city of Eagle Mountain, for example, doubled its population from 20k to 40k.

The populated areas in the southwestern part of the state are also growing very quickly - Washington County (St George) grew 34% and Iron County (Cedar City) grew 23%. St George now has a very sizable metropolitan area containing almost 185,000 people. Might be time to start putting it as a control city. 

With the exception of Utah County (described above), the more historically urbanized parts of the Wasatch Front grew rapidly but at a more manageable pace - generally 10-20%.

Rural areas in general were more stagnant. Some areas did make gains, but six counties lost population. Some of that was in isolated farming areas of south-central Utah that haven't been able to capitalize on tourism, but the greatest losses occurred in the historically coal-dominated area of Eastern Utah. Emery County lost over 7% of its population.

I would not be surprised at all if Price shrinks enough to lose its micropolitan area status in the coming years. Perhaps by then someplace else like Richfield or Ephraim or Roosevelt will be big enough to qualify for that status and take its place.

[kurumi]

Utah's median age is 3 years younger than any other US state (where most other states are less than a year apart): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_median_age

[Rothman]

Utah's median age is 3 years younger than any other US state (where most other states are less than a year apart): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_median_age

I am surprised it isn't younger.

[Rothman]

Here's an interesting visual:


(Just realized Scott5114 posted something similar in reply# 181. I actually like his better... but oh well... now we've got two versions )

Seems the flight from or general decay of rural counties continues.

[NWI_Irish96]

You might start seeing that trend reverse itself. The infrastructure bill included money for rural broadband. Companies are allowing work from home. You can get just about anything delivered so it's less inconvenient to live farther away from a Target or Wal-Mart. Urban and suburban property values have skyrocketed.

[kphoger]

The bleeding might slow, but I doubt it'll stop.

[webny99]

Suburban areas, and exurban areas in particular, are among the fastest-growing areas in the country. People want to live away from the city, but near the conveniences that it offers.

In many parts of the country, distinguishing between suburban and exurban is increasingly difficult. In a lot of fast-growing areas, suburban neighborhoods are built right on the edge of the countryside.

[webny99]

BREAKING: 2020 county subdivision (town/city) populations appear to be available for all places with a population of 5,000 or more.
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219

Just search for your town or city and the April 1, 2020 census population will be on the 4th line.

Unfortunately, my county has two towns with less than 5,000 people, so I can't quite complete my cross check and make sure it adds up correctly. But it's tracking very closely (751 of 759k with the two sub-5k towns remaining), so I would assume the data is official.

[tdindy88]

No one's mentioned Indiana yet so I'll chime in. As with elsewhere large swaths of rural Indiana are continuing to lose population. The most dominant growing area in the state continues to be the Indianapolis Metropolitan Area. I'll put in my thoughts below.

Indianapolis itself continues to grow rather well for being the core county. The city population is over 887,000 and Marion County's is 977,000. This means that if growth continues the city should push over 900,000 by the next census with Marion County reaching over a million residents.

Of course the more dramatic growth is outside Marion County. Hamilton County continues to explode with a population of 347,000+ with Hendricks County crossing into the top ten counties by population with over 174,000. Boone County, Hancock County and Johnson Counties all saw big growth as well. Among the suburbs both Carmel and Fishers are just at the cusp of 100,000. It's a shame that they won't "officially" cross that boundary for another decade even though the estimates and likely population may already be there. Noblesville is the next largest suburb at nearly 70,000 and Greenwood continues to be the largest southern suburb with a population of nearly 64,000. If they included the Center Grove part of Johnson County Greenwood could likely be the third Indy suburb near the 100,000 mark.,

For now that means there remain four Indiana cities with populations over 100,000. Indy of course is the largest and Fort Wayne is next at 263,000. Fort Wayne and Allen County have grown decently as the northeastern corner of the state as seen some decent growing in various counties. Evansville in the southwest part of the state continues to be the third largest city at 117,000 with South Bend at 103,000. South Bend will likely be passed up by Carmel and Fishers in the next decade, though Evansville may still be high enough to remain third largest even then as Carmel is getting landlocked and Fishers can only expand so much. The Hamilton County cities of Noblesville and Westfield still have plenty of room to grow as does Whitestown in Boone County.

Elsewhere in the state, the northwest saw Lake County grow a little bit to a population of 498,000, a bit higher than the last estimates which had it a 485,000 (according the the Census website mentioned on a previous post) I assume most of that growth is in the central and southern parts of the county. Porter County continues to explode as well. I'm watching how St. Joseph and Elkhart Counties in Michiana go as Elkhart County's been booming and St. Joseph has seen little growth.

Some of the other counties seeing growth are not too surprising. Tippecanoe County has continued to surprise me as it's in the top ten for all counties in the state. Lafayette and West Lafayette have been growing well. Monroe County's up, but more on that below. Jackson County (Seymour) saw growth, as did Daviess County (Washington and I-69,) Warrick County (Evansville's suburbs) and Clark and Floyd Counties (Louisville suburbs.)

Among the largest cities, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Carmel, Fishers, Lafayette and Noblesville all grew in population.

Among the cities losing population: Evansville, Bloomington, Hammond, Muncie, Gary, Terre Haute and Anderson. Now one of these cities are not like the other. Bloomington

Bloomington, Indiana, which had a 2010 Census of 80,000 and a 2019 estimate at 85,000 had a population decline to 79,000 in the latest census. This is very likely a result of the pandemic and its effect on college students as mentioned further. Had the census been taken in February instead of April I'm sure Bloomington would have been seen as a "growing city" but now it must have that mark of having declined for the next ten years. Something which I'm sure makes the city worry the state will use to screw them over. Given Indiana, they probably will. I'm sure B-Town's population is probably closer to 83k-85k in reality. Monroe County's population also seems a little lower than what it should be as well but growth outside the Bloomington limits helped it out.

The other major university town in the state, West Lafayette, did grow quite well but they did annex a bit of land out toward the US 231 bypass in the past decade so that surely helped. Their actual population might be even higher than the 44,000 on the census (indeed the 2019 estimate had it at 50,000.) I have no idea how the Notre Dame CDP did population well but Muncie losing population is probably a mix of the pandemic and just plain decline from being in the rust belt that is East Central Indiana.

That's about it for now I guess.

[bandit957]

Are they going to keep using counties in Connecticut, or are they going to start counting those other districts instead?

[golden eagle]

I was surprised that Fayetteville (and not Springdale) was the city that jumped Fort Smith to become the second-largest in Arkansas. The conventional thought was that Fayetteville is land-locked by surrounding towns and won't be able to grow much more, and Springdale at least had space to develop.

Or maybe it's just as simple as Fayetteville had better response to the census.

Jonesboro will jump Fort Smith in the not-too-distant future.

[golden eagle]

Memphis is growing very slowly if not almost stagnant.  Nashville is booming, particularly Rutherford and Williamson counties.  It's only been during my lifetime that metropolitan Nashville passed Memphis.  Now Nashville has 2.1 million!  Memphis has only 1.3 million by comparison, and 25% - 30% of that is actually in Mississippi, not Tennessee, and a very small portion (5% maybe?) in Arkansas.  A little less than 1 million (I think 950k) live in Shelby county.

Shelby County is fairly stagnant, with just 0.2% growth in the 2010's. But Fayette County did see decent growth, with 9.3%.
It is kind of ironic that DeSoto County, MS is the fastest-growing county in the Memphis region with a 14.9% increase, and yet Mississippi as a whole lost population.

But then Mississippi is just a bit confusing in general. Hinds (Jackson) lost population, yet the suburban counties, Madison and Rankin, more than made up for it. Then you've got random cases like Lamar County, where a 15% increase doesn't make much sense. And then of course all of the counties along the Gulf Coast grew in population, so it seems strange to end up with a net loss in population. But I guess the consistent losses elsewhere in the state (including several counties with double digit losses) were just too much to overcome.

Lamar County is fueled by being next to Hattiesburg.

[webny99]

But then Mississippi is just a bit confusing in general. ...  you've got random cases like Lamar County, where a 15% increase doesn't make much sense. ...

Lamar County is fueled by being next to Hattiesburg.

Yes, but Hattiesburg only has about 50,000 people. I wouldn't have thought would be enough to fuel much growth on its own. Maybe it's just a case of the growth being concentrated in the west.

[golden eagle]

But then Mississippi is just a bit confusing in general. ...  you've got random cases like Lamar County, where a 15% increase doesn't make much sense. ...

Lamar County is fueled by being next to Hattiesburg.

Yes, but Hattiesburg only has about 50,000 people. I wouldn't have thought would be enough to fuel much growth on its own. Maybe it's just a case of the growth being concentrated in the west.

Much of the growth in recent decades has been west of I-59 in Lamar County. Hattiesburg's city limits extend along US 98 to the Turtle Creek Mall area. I'm not really sure what drove the westward growth into Lamar. Perhaps, lack of open space in the Forrest County portion. I must say that Hattiesburg seems larger than the 48,730 that the census shows. It's a college town, a military town and a certified retirement community, along with a bustling medical community for a city its size.

[webny99]

BREAKING: 2020 county subdivision (town/city) populations appear to be available for all places with a population of 5,000 or more.
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219

Just search for your town or city and the April 1, 2020 census population will be on the 4th line.

Unfortunately, my county has two towns with less than 5,000 people, so I can't quite complete my cross check and make sure it adds up correctly. But it's tracking very closely (751 of 759k with the two sub-5k towns remaining), so I would assume the data is official.

Just wanted to follow up with this and note that nydatabases.com by democratandchronicle.com has a resource where you can get any 2020 census population, even for places outside New York, and even for places with less than 5,000 residents:
https://data.democratandchronicle.com/census/

I've completed cross-checks for most of the counties in New York state, and they've all added up correctly so far - there have been a few odd results, but most of those have been populous enough to check the census.gov link above and they've all matched up, so if they do indeed prove to be incorrect, I'm sure they'll be found and ironed out in time.

In any case, it's pretty exciting to now have all the 2020 census data, at least for all practical purposes!

[kphoger]

Wow, according to that, both my home county of Rawlins and hometown of Atwood (very, very rural northwestern Kansas) increased slightly from 2010 to 2020.  That surprised me.

[webny99]

Wow, according to that, both my home county of Rawlins and hometown of Atwood (very, very rural northwestern Kansas) increased slightly from 2010 to 2020.  That surprised me.

Slightly is right - an increase of just 42 residents!

I must say I do find it strange and almost amusing to see county populations under 5,000. New York's least-populous county is Hamilton, which is extremely rural and remote by my standards, and it has a population of 5,107. (Granted, it's also considerably larger than your typical Kansas county).

The 3 x 6 bloc of 18 counties in northwestern Kansas, meanwhile, have populations that would comprise a fairly typical single county with 18 towns here in New York. The total population of those 18 counties is 94,514. That's very comparable to Steuben County, NY, pop. 93,584, a county that's large in land area but by no means urban. It's home, in fact, to the very same Corning, NY we've been discussing in the Control Cities thread.

I suppose Corning would be to Steuben County what Hays is to northwestern Kansas - except that northwestern Kansas' population is even more concentrated around Hays than Steuben's is around Corning. Pretty mind-blowing, when you think about it!

[kphoger]

What I found most surprising was the increase in non-white residents in Atwood.  In fact, the white population slightly declined, so the increase is all due to minorities.

When I lived there in the 1990s, the only minorities I knew of were either (1) Wade Kelly, a couple of years ahead of me in school and the only black person in town, or (2) foreign exchange students.

It really makes me wonder what the draw is.  Atwood isn't generally the kind of town people move to from out of the area unless they're buying a farm, taking a teaching position, or taking a nursing position.  The only reason my family moved there is because my dad's church in Illinois (now the Cherry Hill Conference Center) was going into bankruptcy and he sought a call in the Kansas district in order to be closer to my grandparents in Kansas City (ironic).  Historically, there have been centers for people with developmental disabilities that acted as a draw from outside, but I don't know how many of those centers are even left.

[JayhawkCO]

What I found most surprising was the increase in non-white residents in Atwood.  In fact, the white population slightly declined, so the increase is all due to minorities.

When I lived there in the 1990s, the only minorities I knew of were either (1) Wade Kelly, a couple of years ahead of me in school and the only black person in town, or (2) foreign exchange students.

It really makes me wonder what the draw is.  Atwood isn't generally the kind of town people move to from out of the area unless they're buying a farm, taking a teaching position, or taking a nursing position.  The only reason my family moved there is because my dad's church in Illinois (now the Cherry Hill Conference Center) was going into bankruptcy and he sought a call in the Kansas district in order to be closer to my grandparents in Kansas City (ironic).  Historically, there have been centers for people with developmental disabilities that acted as a draw from outside, but I don't know how many of those centers are even left.

I gotta assume Latino population working on farms? Or is it all different backgrounds?

Chris

[kphoger]

What I found most surprising was the increase in non-white residents in Atwood.  In fact, the white population slightly declined, so the increase is all due to minorities.

When I lived there in the 1990s, the only minorities I knew of were either (1) Wade Kelly, a couple of years ahead of me in school and the only black person in town, or (2) foreign exchange students.

It really makes me wonder what the draw is.  Atwood isn't generally the kind of town people move to from out of the area unless they're buying a farm, taking a teaching position, or taking a nursing position.  The only reason my family moved there is because my dad's church in Illinois (now the Cherry Hill Conference Center) was going into bankruptcy and he sought a call in the Kansas district in order to be closer to my grandparents in Kansas City (ironic).  Historically, there have been centers for people with developmental disabilities that acted as a draw from outside, but I don't know how many of those centers are even left.

I gotta assume Latino population working on farms? Or is it all different backgrounds?

I don't assume that.  When I was growing up, the only exposure to Latinos that my peers had ever had was roofers.

The black population increased from 2 to 13 (quite significant, and apparently half of them are minors).
The Asian population increased from 1 to 4 (interesting, and all of them are adults).
The "other" population increased from 12 to 47 (gee, thanks a lot, folks).

But yes, the "Hispanic or Latino" population did increase from 35 to 122.  That's also quite significant, and still a mystery to me.

[webny99]

The "other" population increased from 12 to 47 (gee, thanks a lot, folks).

I guess I don't really understand under what circumstances someone would correctly answer "other" instead of "two or more".

[JayhawkCO]

I don't assume that.  When I was growing up, the only exposure to Latinos that my peers had ever had was roofers.

Sure, but there's a reason that there's a large Latino population in places like Garden City and Dodge City that traditional demographics wouldn't have you expect, hence my guess.

Chris

[kphoger]

I don't assume that.  When I was growing up, the only exposure to Latinos that my peers had ever had was roofers.

Sure, but there's a reason that there's a large Latino population in places like Garden City and Dodge City that traditional demographics wouldn't have you expect, hence my guess.

Garden and Dodge have high minority numbers because of the big processing plants there, not because of hired hands working on farms.  Same with Guymon (OK) and other places in the area.

[JayhawkCO]

I don't assume that.  When I was growing up, the only exposure to Latinos that my peers had ever had was roofers.

Sure, but there's a reason that there's a large Latino population in places like Garden City and Dodge City that traditional demographics wouldn't have you expect, hence my guess.

Garden and Dodge have high minority numbers because of the big processing plants there, not because of hired hands working on farms.  Same with Guymon (OK) and other places in the area.

True.  I probably just lumped them into one bucket of "Big Agriculture".

Chris

[hotdogPi]

The "other" population increased from 12 to 47 (gee, thanks a lot, folks).

I guess I don't really understand under what circumstances someone would correctly answer "other" instead of "two or more".

Indonesia?