Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows Iowa’s population grew by just over 13-thousand people between July of 2004 and 2005. Beth Henning studies the data for the State Library of Iowa, and says that’s not good news for people who’re worried Iowa will lose a seat in Congress. She says this is the longest period of population growth in the state as its the 18th straight year the population has increased.
The increase was one half of a percent. Henning says that’s been a problem — while the growth has been steady — it has also been small. Henning says in the period between the 2000 Census and 2005, Iowa’s population grew by one-point-four percent while Nevada, the fastest growing state, grew by nearly 21 percent. Henning says the fastest growing states tend to be in the sunbelt and the mountains.
Henning says natural factors kept Iowa from losing population. She says we had 53-thousand more births and deaths in that five year period and 29-thousand more foreign immigrants come into the state, and that offset the 41-thousand residents that moved out of the state. Henning says Iowa saw a dip in deaths, with fewer deaths in 2004 to 2005 than it had in previous years. She says this could be due to the “birth dearth” in the 1930’s so the population of people 35 and older isn’t as high as it was a couple of years ago. Henning expects the slow growth to continue.
She says Iowa has been very consistent as she says since 1900 the growth has been slow and steady. Henning says she expects the trend to continue for a few more years. Henning says the big concern with the slow growth is that Iowa may lose one of its Congressional seats as the other states outpace it in growth. The new population for Iowa is estimated at two-million-966-thousand-334. The total population of the United States is just over 296-million. For more census information, surf to:www.iowadatacenter.org.