Arizona replacing Nevada as fastest-growing state

Louisiana lost more people than any other state did.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Arizona: It's not just for retired Midwesterners.
Arizona is attracting people from across the U.S. and across the border at such a pace that it is now the fastest-growing state in the country, replacing Nevada, which had held the crown for 19 straight years. The new population figures were released today by the Census Bureau.
"It used to be merely a retirement magnet for Midwest seniors," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "Now it's also a front door for immigrants from Mexico and an escape hatch for Californians seeking affordable housing."
At the other end of the scale, Louisiana lost nearly 220,000 people -- more than any other state -- in the year after Hurricane Katrina.
Arizona led the nation with a population growth rate of 3.6 percent in the past year, followed by Nevada, Idaho, Georgia and Texas.
Arizona added about 32,000 immigrants in the past year. It added four times that many people who were relocating from other states. The biggest donor state: California.
"Every area where there's private land there's some form of development going on or being considered," said Merrill Wuerch, who owns Century 21 real estate offices in Phoenix and Sierra Vista. "I've been in the business 24 years and I have never seen anything like this, what we went through."
Strong real estate market
Wuerch said Arizona's real estate market has cooled after sizzling for several years. Still, he said, the market remains stronger than in other parts of the country, with growing medical and high-tech industries providing the jobs, and the sunshine providing the allure.
The pace of development has strained Arizona's resources and preoccupied local officials, said Tom Rex, associate director of the Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research at Arizona State University.
"All they can think about is getting the sewer lines out to the new housing and getting the roads in," he said.
The growth pattern means Arizona and Florida will probably add two House seats when congressional districts are redrawn after the 2010 census, said Clark Bensen of Polidata, a Virginia firm that consults on political redistricting. Texas could add four seats and several other states could add one, he said.
Bensen projects New York and Ohio to lose two seats apiece, and several other states, including Louisiana, to lose one.
The Census Bureau estimates annual state population totals using local records of births and deaths, IRS records of people moving within the United States and census statistics on immigrants. The bureau does not distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants, and most experts believe that the number of illegal immigrants is underestimated.
Other findings
Among the findings for 2006:
Texas gained the most people, about 580,000, followed by Florida, California, Georgia and Arizona.
North Carolina broke into the top 10 in total population, nudging New Jersey to 11th.
Four states and the District of Columbia lost population: Louisiana, New York, Rhode Island and Michigan.
Many other states lost people who relocated elsewhere in the country, increasing their populations only through births and immigration.
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