New U.S. Mean Center of Population Announced for
2010
Today the U.S. Census
Bureau released the first two of a series of 2010 Census briefs that offer a
closer look at race and population in the United States: Population Distribution and Change: 2000 to
2010 and Overview of Race and
Hispanic Origin: 2010.
Population
Distribution and Change: 2000 to 2010 analyzes the nation’s
population change for the United States as a whole as well as
its regions, states, metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas, counties
and places. It shows that over the past decade, the U.S. population
increased by 9.7 percent – a rate slower than recent decades – but surpassing
the 300 million mark to reach 308.7 million people. The South and West accounted
for 84.4 percent of the U.S.
population increase from 2000 to 2010, enough for the population of the West to
surpass that of the Midwest during the decade.
Between 2000 and 2010, all 10 of the most populous metro areas grew, and almost
two-thirds of the nation’s counties and nine of the 10 most populous cities
gained population.
Looking at our nation’s
changing racial and ethnic diversity, Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin: 2010
shows that the Hispanic and Asian populations in the
United
States have experienced the fastest growth over
the past decade. While the non-Hispanic white population is still numerically
and proportionally the largest major race and ethnic group in the
United
States, it is growing at the slowest rate. The
rise in the Hispanic population accounted for more than half of the 27.3 million
increase in the total U.S. population. But more than any
other race group, the Asian population grew the fastest, increasing by 43
percent.
The new mean center of
population for the United
States was also announced today; as of April 1, 2010, it is
near Plato, Mo. The Census Bureau calculated this point as
the place where an imaginary, flat, weightless and rigid map of the
United
States would balance perfectly if all
308,745,538 residents counted in the 2010 Census were of identical weight. The
center of population tells the story of America, following a trail across the
country ─ across Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and
Missouri ─ that reflects our history of settling the frontier, manifest destiny,
waves of immigration and regional migration.
