Utah's own surge

Utah offi

cials believe the U.S. Census Bureau is once more undercounting Utahns, but even if the feds' numbers are right our population is booming. According to figures released last week, Utah's population is the third-fastest growing in the nation, at 2.6 percent, following closely behind Arizona (2.8 percent) and No. 1 Nevada (2.9 percent).

Utah demographers say when more detailed numbers are released in the spring, Utah may actually jump from 2.6 percent growth to 3.2 percent; they didn't speculate on whether Nevada and Arizona will increase, too.

It's positive news for Utah, since people are still flowing into the state to take new and/or better jobs. A total of 32,859 moved into the state between July 2006 and July 2007 -- 75 percent from elsewhere in the United States, and 25 percent are international immigrants. Less clear, of course, is the number of illegal immigrants who have settled amongst us over the past year.

But the largest source of new Utahns, as always, is the number of babies being born: 54,523; Utah continues to have the highest birth rate in the nation. While it helps fuel the economy, it also demands more schools, more teachers and a significantly greater expense for everything associated with public education.

Another effect of a surging population is that parts of our communities that used to be open and rural are now becoming subdivisions and commercial centers to service those new residential neighborhoods. It places a greater burden on local planners to get things right, and on local, county and state governments to build and maintain infrastructure to keep pace with the ever-growing numbers of Utahns.

Such rapid population growth is preferable to flat or negative numbers, which bring with them high unemployment and other related problems. Population growth provides incentive for business and industry to create goods and services for the growing populace, providing demand for workers and sustainable employment -- it's Economics 101.

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