Pike Nationally Ranked As 'Fastest Growing' County

May 28, 01:59 AM

Current Headlines: By Anonymous

Pike County continues to be ranked nationally as Pennsylvania's fastest-growing county, among counties over 10,000 population in percent increase, according to the 2006 county population estimates released last month by the U.S. Census Bureau. As of July 1, 2006, Pike County's population was 58,195, and has grown 25.7 percent, or 11,893 persons since April 1, 2000. Pike County has been ranked as the fastest-growing county in Pennsylvania each year since 2000. No other Pennsylvania county ranks in the national top 100 for growth rate over this time period.

From 2000-2006, Forest County has actually had the largest percent population increase (31-5), but is not nationally ranked because it has a population below 10,000. Chester County was ranked in the top 100 counties for numeric growth, 86th in the nation with a population increase of 48,611 from the April 1, 2000 estimate base, to 482,112 in 2006.

The commonwealth also boasted four counties among the top 100 largest nationally in 2006: Philadelphia, 24th (1,448,394), Allegheny, 30th (1,223,411), Montgomery, 69th (775,688) and Bucks, 95th (623,205). Philadelphia County slipped from 22nd in 2005 to 24th this year.

The county population estimates are calculated using administrative records to estimate components of population change, such as births, deaths, internal and international migration. The estimates reflect changes to the Census 2000 population resulting from legal boundary, updates as of Jan. 1 of the estimates year, other geographic program changes and Count Question Resolution (CQR) actions. (The CQR program was an administrative review program that handled external challenges to particular official Census 2000 counts.)

Percent population change

Pike County led Pennsylvania counties in population percent increase from 2005-2006, increasing 2,015 people, or 3.6 percent and was followed by Monroe, Franklin and York counties, each with a 2.0 percent population increase. Cameron (-1.9 percent), Sullivan (- 1.3 percent), Elk (-0.9 percent), and Potter (-0.9) counties experienced the largest percent loss of population during this period. Six of the top 10 counties with the highest population percent growth from 2000-2006 are in the eastern part of the state, bordering New Jersey or the metropolitan Philadelphia area. In contrast, seven of the top 10 counties with the highest percent population toss over the 2000- 2006 time period were concentrated in the northwestern and north central part of the state. Thirty-seven counties experienced population loss during this period, led by Cameron (-8.1 percent), Elk 5.5 percent) and Warren (4.8 percent) counties. Both Allegheny (4.5 percent) and Philadelphia (-4.6 percent) also experienced high population loss.

Numeric population change

From 2005-2006, Chester (+8,389), York (+8,140), and Lehigh (+5,376) counties gained the most population, white Beaver (- 1,089), Philadelphia (-7,956), and Allegheny (9,625) counties experienced the greatest population decreases. Chester (+48,611) , York (+34,571) 1) and Berks (+27,488) counties have gained the most population since 2000, while Philadelphia (-69,156), Allegheny (- 58,255) and Luzerne (-6,232) have experienced the biggest population decrease in that time period.

Components of population change: Births, deaths and migration

Philadelphia, Allegheny, and Montgomery led all Pennsylvania counties in the number of births and deaths from 2005-2006 and 2000- 2006. The number of deaths in Allegheny County has outpaced the number -of births by 9,044. Forest, Cameron and Sullivan counties had the lowest number of births and deaths from 2005-2006 and 2000- 2006.

Births were outpaced by deaths in all three counties between 2000 and 2006. Philadelphia (15-0), Lancaster (14.0), and Juniata (13-3) counties had the highest birth rates per 1,000 between 2005 and 2006, while Forest (6.0), Pike (6.3), and Centre (8.2) had the lowest rates.

Since 2000, the largest net migration has occurred in the counties of Chester (33,529), York (27,289), and Monroe (24,911). Philadelphia (-96,674), Allegheny (-45,218), and Erie (-7,539) all lost population to outmigration.

Copyright Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal May 01, 2007

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