[Vision2020] Census Bureau Projects Idaho's Population in 2030

[Barbara Richardson Crouch]

> 
> NEWS RELEASE
> 
>   
> For Immediate Release: April 21, 2005
> 
> Information Contact: Janell Hyer 208-332-3570 x3220 or Bob Fick
> 208-332-3570 x 3628
> 
>  
> 
> Census Bureau Projects 52% Increase in 
> 
> Idaho's Population by 2030
> 
>  
> 
> Boise, Idaho -- Idaho will continue to be one of the nation's fastest
> growing states over the next quarter century, and a major contributor to
> that growth will be people over 64.
> 
>  
> 
> The Census Bureau on Thursday released its latest projections for
> population growth through 2030, predicting Idaho will be the sixth
> fastest growing state over that period.
> 
>  
> 
> The new projections estimate Idaho's future population growth at 52.2
> percent from 2000 to 2030, boosting the state's population from 1.3
> million when the 2000 census was taken to nearly 2 million in 2030.
> 
>  
> 
> Only Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Texas and Utah are expected to grow at
> faster rates.
> 
>  
> 
> Of the nearly 676,000 additional people in Idaho in 2030, almost a third
> will be senior citizens, swelling the over-64 population from 146,000 or
> 11.3 percent in 2000, to 361,000 or 18.3 percent of the population in
> 2030.
> 
>  
> 
> At the same time, the number of young people under age 18 will decrease
> as a percentage of the population. Census Bureau analysts anticipate
> young people will fall from 28.5 percent of Idaho's population in 2000
> to under 25 percent in 2030.
> 
>  
> 
> The nearly 150 percent increase in those 65 and older ranks Idaho as
> seventh among all the states and underscores health care as a major
> policy issue for a state with one of the lowest ratios of doctors in the
> nation.
> 
>  
> 
> State Labor Economist Janell Hyer at Idaho Commerce & Labor said the
> aging population base means older workers are becoming more important in
> maintaining an adequate labor force. The rising cost of living,
> especially for medical care, is also a factor, she said.
> 
>  
> 
> "What this shows is that we're going to have more people over 65 working
> because they simply can't afford not to," Hyer said. "You look now when
> you go to McDonalds or some of these other places and what do you see.
> The workers are getting older. If for no other reason, many need to work
> because it's the only way they can deal with spiraling health care
> costs."
> 
>  
> 
> Gov. Dirk Kempthorne highlighted the issue during his tenure as chairman
> of the National Governors Association in 2003-2004, when he focused
> national attention on the need for affordable, accessible long-term
> care.
> 
>  
> 
> >From mid-2000 to mid-2004, Idaho's population grew at an annual average
> of more than 1.7 percent, hitting nearly 1.4 million last summer,
> according to census estimates. The new projections put annual growth
> this year through June at just 1 percent, apparently a reflection of
> reduced in-migration as state economies elsewhere pick up steam.
> 
>  
> 
> Over the next decade, the census bureau expects population growth in
> Idaho to remain around 7.5 percent before beginning to slide into the 6
> percent range starting in 2015.
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>  
> 
> But the long-range projections are only that, and actual population
> growth will be significantly affected by social, economic and political
> developments over the next 25 years.
> 
>  
> 
> In 1988 as Idaho came out of a near-depression that had seen the state
> population actually decline three years earlier, the Census Bureau
> issued a series of long-term projections that forecast Idaho's
> population growth at under 0.5 percent a year during the 1990s and an
> estimated total population of 1.06 million in 2000.
> 
>  
> 
> Instead, Idaho's population grew at nearly 3 percent a year, one of the
> fastest rates in the country, and the 2000 population was 1.29 million.
> 
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> 
> -end-  
> ------------------------------------------------------------------ 
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