  |
Measuring the fastest-growing counties, the data revealed the
latest kinks in metropolitan and suburban growth.
| Of the fastest growing fifth of U.S. counties, 80 percent are
in the West and the South. by Murray Whyte This spring, the U.S. Census Bureau released a statistical snapshot of the country's latest demographic changes. Measuring the fastest-growing counties, the data revealed the latest kinks in metropolitan and suburban growth. "The population is continuing to spread outward from established cores," according to Census Bureau geographer David Rain. "The result in some cases is a 'donut' pattern." Of the fastest-growing fifth of U.S. counties, 80 percent are in the West and the South. At left, the top 10 counties describe a wide arc of domestic migration, as more and more people move to the further rings of cities in the Rockies, the South, and Texas. There is one anomaly on this list: Lincoln County, South Dakota, which grew by 9.9 percent between 1996 and 1997. Far from the country's centers of growth, Lincoln is one of the rare corners of the upper Midwest participating in the tech boom; North Sioux City, just south of it, is the home of computer giant Gateway. |
Keywords:
population, Census, demography, growth
