[Market Watch] Fastest-Growing States Mirror Major Pest Markets

How is your state growing (or not growing)? Since pest management firms need people to hire them, it’s interesting to watch how the U.S. population moves (or doesn’t). Here’s a review of some data published late last year by the U.S. Census Bureau that may be of interest to PMPs.

By adding an average of 803 new residents each day between July 1, 2013 and July 1, 2014, Florida passed New York to become the nation’s third most populous state. Florida’s population grew by 293,000 over this period, reaching approximately 19.9 million. The population of New York increased by 51,000 to 19.7 million.

California remained the nation’s most populous state in 2014, with 38.8 million residents, followed by Texas, at 27 million. Although the list of the 10 most populous states overall was unchanged, two other states did change positions, as North Carolina moved past Michigan to take the ninth spot.

Another milestone took place in Georgia (ranked 8th), which saw its population surpass 10 million for the first time.

North Dakota was the nation’s fastest-growing state over the last year. Its population increased 2.2 percent, followed by 1.7 percent growth in Nevada and Texas. Each of the 10 fastest-growing states was in the South or West with the exception of North Dakota. 

The states with the largest numeric population increase were Texas (451,321), California (371,107), Florida (292,986), Georgia (102,584), Arizona (96,487) and North Carolina (95,047). Six states lost population between July 1, 2013, and July 1, 2014: Illinois (9,972 or -0.08 percent), West Virginia (3,269 or -0.18 percent), Connecticut (2,664 or -0.07 percent), New Mexico (1,323 or -0.06 percent, Alaska (527 or -0.07 percent) and Vermont (293 or -0.05 percent).

The United States as a whole saw its population increase by 2.4 million to 318.9 million, or 0.75 percent.   

The Census Bureau develops state population estimates by measuring population change since the most recent census. The Census Bureau uses births, deaths, administrative records and survey data to develop estimates of population. For more detail regarding the methodology, see www.census.gov/popest/methodology/index.html.