Historical author Michael Barone has been charting a significant shift in this country’s census patterns.
From 2000-06, the U.S. population grew by approximately 6 percent. However, the rate of growth in America’s “Coastal Megalopolises” (such as Boston, New York, Miami, Los Angeles and San Diego) was only 4 percent, points out Barone in a recent opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal . In contrast, “Interior Boomtowns” have grown by 18 per cent in the last six years – a function of significant domestic as well as immigrant inflows.
Among the major “Interior Boomtowns” (with accompanying rates of growth) are Las Vegas (19 percent), Charlotte (13 percent), Phoenix (12 percent) and Tampa (10 percent).