[00:05.80]1998 Passage4

[00:08.72]Emerging from the 1980 census

[00:11.23]is the picture of a nation developing

[00:13.25]more and more regional competition,

[00:15.78]as population growth in the Northeast

[00:18.19]and Midwest reaches a near standstill.

[00:21.93]This development--and its strong implications for

[00:24.84]US politics and economy in years ahead

[00:28.07]--has enthroned the South as America's most densely populated region

[00:32.70]for the first time in the history

[00:34.06]of the nation's head counting.

[00:36.59]Altogether, the US population rose in the 1970s

[00:40.81]by 23.2 million people

[00:43.84]--numerically the third-largest growth

[00:46.18]ever recorded in a single decade.

[00:49.71]Even so, that gain adds up to only 11.4 percent,

[00:55.06]lowest in American annual records

[00:57.45]except for the Depression years.

[01:00.57]Americans have been migrating south and west

[01:03.91]in larger numbers since World War II,

[01:06.83]and the pattern still prevails.

[01:10.17]Three sun-belt states--Florida, Texas and California

[01:14.90]--together had nearly 10 million more people in 1980

[01:19.05]than a decade earlier.

[01:21.16]Among large cities, San Diego moved from 14th to 8th

[01:26.21]and San Antonio from 15th to 10th

[01:29.64]--with Cleveland and Washington, D.C.,

[01:32.07]dropping out of the top 10.

[01:34.99]Not all that shift can be attributed to the movement

[01:38.02]out of the snow belt,

[01:39.43]census officials say.

[01:41.25]Nonstop waves of immigrants played a role, too

[01:44.78]--and so did bigger crops of babies

[01:47.10]as yesterday's "baby boom" generation

[01:49.61]reached its child-bearing years.

[01:52.84]Moreover, demographers see the continuing shift

[01:56.16]south and west as joined

[01:58.48]by a related but newer phenomenon:

[02:01.51]More and more, Americans apparently

[02:03.83]are looking not just for places with more jobs

[02:06.34]but with fewer people, too.

[02:09.37]Some instances--

[02:11.68]﹒Regionally, the Rocky Mountain states

[02:14.01]reported the most rapid growth rate

[02:16.52]--37.1 percent since 1970 in a vast area

[02:21.51]with only 5 percent of the US population.

[02:25.84]﹒Among states, Nevada and Arizona

[02:28.80]grew fastest of all:

[02:30.70]63.5 and 53.1 percent respectively.

[02:35.94]Except for Florida and Texas,

[02:38.38]the top 10 in rate of growth is composed

[02:41.04]of Western states with 7.5 million people

[02:45.29]--about 9 per square mile.

[02:48.51]The flight from overcrowdedness

[02:50.62]affects the migration from snow belt

[02:53.00]to more bearable climates.

[02:55.61]Nowhere do 1980 census statistics dramatize more

[02:59.91]the American search for spacious living

[03:02.14]than in the Far West.

[03:04.45]There, California added 3.7 million to its population

[03:09.49]in the 1970s,

[03:11.40]more than any other state.

[03:14.23]In that decade, however, large numbers

[03:17.05]also migrated from California,

[03:19.88]mostly to other parts of the West.

[03:22.57]Often they chose

[03:24.08]--and still are choosing

[03:25.81]--somewhat colder climates such as Oregon,

[03:28.72]Idaho and Alaska in order to escape smog,

[03:32.75]crime and other plagues of urbanization in the Golden State.

[03:37.90]As a result, California's growth rate dropped

[03:41.23]during the 1970s, to 18.5 percent

[03:45.66]--little more than two thirds the 1960s' growth figure

[03:49.70]and considerably below that of other Western states.