Yuma growth spurred by births, military

PHOENIX - While Yuma County did not see the dramatic population growth some other locations in the state experienced this year the population continued to increase, largely driven by the births of new residents and steady expansion in key areas such as the military.

Arizona's sluggish economy did not keep Pinal County from having the fastest rate of population growth of any county in the entire country.
New figures today (Thursday) from the U.S. Census Bureau show the 299,246 residents as of July 1, 2007 is an 11.5 percent increase from the same time a year earlier. And since the 2000 Census, the population is up 65 percent.

Technically speaking, two other counties did have a faster year-over-year growth rate. But those are special exceptions: the Louisiana parishes of New Orleans and St. Bernard, which are finally being repopulated after Hurricane Katrina.

The growth in Pinal County, by contrast, is fueled to a great extent by people who are employed in the state's two metropolitan areas but are looking for more affordable housing than may be available closer to where they work.

In fact, virtually all of Pinal's population explosion continues to be from people moving there.

The net "natural increase'' - births minus deaths - totaled just 2,606 in the one-year period. The real change from the fact that the county also became home to more than 28,400 people in the one-year period who moved there from somewhere else.

Figures for individual cities will not be available until later this year. But all indications are that Pinal's population explosion, at one time confined to the areas immediately adjacent to Maricopa and Pima counties, is spreading further.

In pure numbers, Pinal's nearly 31,000 new residents in a single year paled in comparison with Maricopa County. It posted the largest absolute increase in new residents, both annually and since 2000.

The county added more than 101,000 new people in a single year, a 2.7 percent increase; since the Census the population is up about 808,000 - close to the entire current population of Pima County - a boost of more than 25 percent.

Migration also played a role here, too, with nearly 61,900 of those new residents during the year moving from somewhere else. That includes almost 22,000 from other countries, though the Census Bureau does not break down how many of those new international migrants came here legally or otherwise.

Different patterns emerge in the rest of the state.

Yuma County did not see the boom found in Pinal over the past year but the population continued to see modest growth. Census figures show a population of 190,557 at the time this data was collected. That is an increase of 4,716 residents over the past year.

New residents born in the county were a driving factor behind that growth, with 3,664 children born in the county, which outpaced the 1,379 who died here.

Immigration also drives local population figures, through more people are coming to Yuma from within the United States than internationally. Figures show there were 956 new residents due to international immigration and a total of 1,487 who came here from internal movement with the country.

There are several factors that drive internal movement to Yuma, according to Chris Camacho, president of the Greater Yuma Economic Development Corp. Arizona's climate has been luring residents to the "Sunbelt" for years, he said, and the less stringent regulations have encouraged businesses to settle in this state rather than neighboring California.

Locally, Camacho said, one of the biggest economic presences in Yuma is the military, both in Marine Corps Air Station Yuma and the growing civilian contractor presence at Yuma Proving Ground.

"YPG has 3,000 to 5,000 civilian contractors at any given time," Camacho said.

He added that he expects growth to continue despite the slowdown in the economy, as businesses such as General Motors and Allied West Paper Corp. locate to Yuma.

Graham County, boosted by new mining activity in the area, grew by more than 4.2 percent in a single year.

That is mirrored in Greenlee County which posted a 3.8 percent annual population increase. If that pattern continues, it may reverse what has been a declining trend: Even with the boost, Greenlee County had 9 percent fewer residents in mid-2007 than it did at the beginning of the decade.

Pima County's population is up 18,385, or 1.9 percent year over year. That includes more than 13,300 people moving from elsewhere, with more than 2,900 of those from other countries.

But the long-term patterns show Pima County's growth is not keeping pace with other areas of the state - and not just Maricopa County.

Both Mohave and Yavapai counties posted larger percentage population increases since 2000 than Pima County. In both cases, the population growth is fueled by people moving there, as the number of births in each county barely exceeded the number of deaths.

Figures for individual cities will not be released until later this spring.

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Sun staff writer Sarah Reynolds contributed to this report. She can be reached at sreynolds@yumasun.com or 539-6847.