Idaho charts third-highest growth rate in US

By Cameron Rasmusson
Reader Staff

Congratulations, Idaho, you’re moving on up.

Idaho economists reported this week that Idaho experienced the third-highest growth rate in the nation between between mid-2015 and mid-2016. Only Utah and Nevada beat out the Gem State, with Florida, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, the District of Columbia and Texas trailing behind. It is the state’s highest growth rate since 2008.

The Boise Weekly reports that a combination of strong birth rates and migration helped push Idaho to the top of the list. Idaho charted a birth rate of 13.7 babies per 1,000 women, good enough to rank eighth-highest in the nation. Meanwhile, 13,000 people moved to the state from elsewhere in the nation or abroad. By the end of the measurement period on July 1, Idaho had grown by 30,300 residents to a total population of 1,683,140.

Conversely, eight states lost population this year: Mississippi, Wyoming, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, West Virginia and Illinois.