Growth On A Breakneck Pace Population Of Biggest 12 Cities Jumps By 21 Percent Since 1990
Idaho’s inexorable shift from rural to urban continued through the first half of the 1990s, according to new federal figures.
Census Bureau estimates released on Tuesday showed that population growth in just a dozen of the state’s largest cities accounted for more than 44 percent of the total population gain between April 1, 1990, and July 1, 1996.
That expansion left those cities accounting for nearly 41 percent of the state’s population, up two-thirds of a percentage point from six years earlier. While the state’s population jumped 18 percent during the six-year period, making it one of the fastest growing in the nation, the population of just those dozen cities was up nearly 21 percent.
But the new estimates did not include growth in many suburbs, where the concerns of more and more residents reflect city, rather than rural, interests.
The figures served to reinforce the view of many, including some factions of the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation, that urban voters could control the election of the state Legislature in 2002 after the districts are redrawn to reflect the turn-of-the-century census.
The shift is being reflected already in the state Capitol. The most obvious expression was the decision in 1996 to finally require farmers and ranchers - after almost 80 years - to provide worker’s compensation coverage for their workers.
It has also been seen in the increasing number of confrontations between homeowners and farm producers over land use in areas like Idaho Falls and Twin Falls.
As has been obvious for several years, Meridian was the state’s fastest growing city, increasing in population from less than 9,600 in spring 1990 to more than 20,600 in mid-1996.
Boise remained the largest city with a population gain of 20.6 percent, to more than 152,700.
And of the 12 largest cities, only one of the more rural-oriented, Rexburg, lost population. It declined 94 to just over 14,200.
xxxx Changes The 12 largest cities in order of population in mid-1996, and their increase since 1990: Boise, 152,737, 20.6 percent. Pocatello, 51,344, 11.3 percent. Idaho Falls, 48,079, 9.3 percent. Nampa, 37,558, 32.4 percent. Twin Falls, 31,989, 15.8 percent. Coeur d’Alene, 31,076, 26.5 percent. Lewiston, 30,271, 7.8 percent. Caldwell, 21,089, 14.6 percent. Meridian, 20,627, 115 percent. Moscow, 20,101, 9.3 percent. Post Falls, 14,303, 94.6 percent. Rexburg, 14,204, -0.7 percent.