Population growth continues in rural Idaho counties

Population in more than half of rural Idaho counties increased in the one-year period ended July 1, the Idaho Department of Labor reported.

Twenty of 38 counties with fewer than 70,000 residents posted stronger growth compared to a year earlier, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released March 19. Eight rural counties gained population after reporting losses in the previous year: Adams, Lincoln, Elmore, Butte, Caribou, Cassia, Oneida and Minidoka.

The strength of the economy statewide may have been responsible for limiting what has been a persistent migration from rural to urban Idaho over the past two decades, the Department of Labor said in a release.
Idaho’s urban counties continued to lead the way in population gains on a percentage basis, according to the mid-year figures. The most populated counties grew 3.1 percent last year compared to 3.6 percent a year earlier. The population in rural counties rose 1.3 percent, up from 1.1 percent. Census Bureau figures show slightly more than 35,500 people moved into the state in 2007, and a majority of those newcomers headed into the most populated regions of Ada, Bannock, Bonneville, Canyon, Kootenai and Twin Falls counties.
Statewide, the 2.4 percent population gain ranked fourth nationally.
Growth in Canyon and Jefferson counties ranked 48th and 57th nationally, respectively, among counties with populations exceeding 10,000, according to a press release.
Idaho’s most populated counties rose 3.1 percent last year compared to 3.6 percent in the July 2006 estimates while the rural population was up 1.3 percent compared to 1.1 percent a year earlier.
Canyon and Jefferson counties were among the fastest growing counties with over 10,000 population in the United States. Canyon County, which has benefited from living costs lower than neighboring Ada County, recorded a 4.5 percent population increase to rank 48th nationally, and Jefferson County, which is absorbing new growth around Idaho Falls, was up 4.3 percent to rank 57th. Canyon County posted a 4.9 percent increase in mid-2006 while Jefferson was up just 3 percent.
The new estimates covered the strongest 12-month period that the state economy has experienced in decades.
The strength of the economy statewide may have been responsible for limiting what has been a persistent migration from rural to urban Idaho over the past two decades. Only six counties – Bear Lake, Clark, Clearwater, Lemhi, Lewis and Shoshone – lost population between mid-2006 and last July. That compared to nine the year before. Nineteen counties including those six saw 1,552 more people move out than move it, but the other 13 had enough natural population growth to avoid population loss. The outmigration in 2007 compared to nearly 2,500 more people moving out of 16 counties than in a year earlier.
Only Clearwater, Lemhi and Shoshone  reported more deaths than births, a sign of an aging population as younger families move away.