Mountain West Continues to Grow, Migration Plays Large Role

By Courtney Lowery, 4-13-09

	Caption: Click on the map for a larger version.

The Rocky Mountain West continues to grow with Utah, Colorado, Idaho, and Wyoming all in the top 10 of the nation’s fastest growing states, according to an analysis from the Center for the Rocky Mountain West.

Utah is the fastest growing state in the nation, growing 2.53 percent from July of 2007 to 2008. Colorado grew 2 percent in that time period, Idaho grew 1.8 percent and Wyoming increased by 1.8 percent. Montana grew by 1.13 percent, putting it in 14th place.

This is all from an article in the spring issue of the Center’s newsletter, which looks at the trends behind this growth, of which, net migration is a big one.

From the article:

Sixty-four percent of Utah’s total population growth during the year was from positive net migration. About 60% of growth by both Wyoming and Montana and about half of growth by Colorado and Idaho was positive net migration. So migration trends play a large role in regional growth patterns.

Click here for the full piece.

[End of article]

The Smart Growth Nimby, Bananas (Not in my back yard, Build absolutely nothing anywhere near anybody) are trying mightily to claim last settler status and shut the gate behind them, using the environment and quality of life issues as a pretext for exclusionary zoning ordinances. Be that as it may I've always thought that expressing population growth as a percentage of existing population is a little bit misleading because it doesn't tell you how many new people relocated to a given place unless you do a little math.

Good Grief, get a grip on reality. These projections are from mid 2007 to 2008 data. Our severe recession just began in late 2008. That's the trouble with projections. They assume trends will continue unabated with no intervening variables.

Current economic conditions have already affected migration from Mexico (the illegal kind), and migration from other states (the legal kind), as people can't sell their homes. Even if they could, there are no jobs to migrate to!