U.S. Population Up 3 Million Last Year

The nation’s population grew by 1.1 percent, or 3.1 million people, between July 1, 2001, and July 1, 2002, to total 288.4 million, according to estimates released by the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau.

“Nevada experienced the fastest growth among states over this period as its population rose 3.6 percent to 2.2 million,” said Census Bureau demographer Melissa Therrien. “It’s been the fastest-growing state in the nation each of the past 16 years.” Rounding out the list of the five most rapidly growing states were Arizona (2.8 percent), Florida (2.1 percent), Texas (1.9 percent) and Georgia (1.8 percent).

“Since the latest population estimates were released about a year ago, Texas replaced Colorado as one of the five fastest-growing states,” Therrien said. “These five states accounted for more than one-third of the national growth.”

California remained the most populous state in the nation with 35.1 million people in 2002. California’s population constituted 12.2 percent of the U.S. total. The second and third most populous states Texas (21.8 million) and New York (19.2 million) together accounted for 14.2 percent of the country’s population.

Between July 1, 2001, and July 1, 2002, only the District of Columbia and North Dakota experienced population declines. The District of Columbia’s population declined by 0.5 percent to approximately 571,000, and North Dakota’s total declined by 0.4 percent to about 634,000 residents. Both the District of Columbia’s and North Dakota’s populations declined at a slower rate than they have in some recent years.