Despite the loss of manufacturing jobs in the past eight years, Burke County's population is continues to grow, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's latest estimates.
The federal agency believes Burke County's population climbed past 89,000 between July 1, 2007, and July 1, 2008.
With an estimated 89,361 people, Burke County's population is the highest it's been since 2000, the Census Bureau now believes.
The estimate appears in the bureau's annual report of state, county and metropolitan populations, which was published on Thursday. The Census Bureau's tables show mid-year population estimates for 2000 through 2008, as well as the April 1, 2000, census counts. The bureau's Population Division analysts compile the data from American Community Surveys between the decennial census counts, and by factoring in components of population change such as births, deaths, net domestic migration and net international migration.
The Census Bureau charted a decline in Burke County's population from 89,316 in mid-2000 to a low of approximately 88,600 in 2005. Since then, the bureau's estimates have shown Burke County's population slowly rising.
Burke County's growth will be welcomed by local and county officials, because the amount of some state and federal funds depends in part on population size.
However, Burke made a scant gain compared with other North Carolina counties. Eighty-two N.C. counties' populations have increased since 2000, according to the federal estimates. Burke's is the next-to-smallest increase.
Neighboring Caldwell County's population has grown 3.4 percent since 2000, according to the new estimates, McDowell County's is up 4 percent and Catawba County has 10.9 percent more people — to a total above 155,000 — than in 2000.
North Carolina's population grew past the 9 million mark between 2007 and 2008, the census bureau believes. Statewide the population has increased 12.3 percent since 2000.
Raleigh-Cary and Austin-Round Rock, Texas, were the nation's fastest-growing metro areas between 2007 and 2008, according to the bureau's population estimates. Wake County was one of the 25 fastest-growing counties in the nation last year. And, including Wake, North Carolina had 11 of the 100 fastest-growing counties in the United States between 2007 and 2008.
On the Web: www.census.gov.
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