JARED MILLER Star-Tribune capital bureau reporter | Posted: Friday, March 21, 2008 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - The abundance of jobs in Wyoming is driving up the state population, including some rural areas not normally associated with growth.
Weston, Crook and Niobrara counties in eastern Wyoming all added residents between 2006 and 2007, reversing periods of flat growth or population declines, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday.
The result has been increased demand for housing and schools - a welcome change for many longtime residents.
"It seems to me you can't hardly find a house to live in," Weston County Commissioner Glen Hutt said. "And the new ones they build all get sold right away."
Weston County in northeast Wyoming saw its population grow by 4 percent between 2006 and 2007, from 6,590 to 6,854. That made it the fifth-fastest-growing county in the state.
Just to the north, Crook County registered an increase of 3.4 percent (from 6,077 to 6,284) in 2006-07, making it the sixth-fastest grower.
An obvious contributor to the upswing is the proximity of those counties to energy-rich Campbell County, where coal mining jobs play a major role in the economy. Increasingly, Campbell County mines are busing employees from Weston County, where workers have an easier time finding affordable housing, Hutt said.
The scenic hills north of Newcastle are also becoming a magnet for retirees, Hutt said.
"I don't want to say it's a boom," Hutt said. "But you don't never sit still. You are either going forward or you're going backward, and I like to see the growth."
Crook County is also host to bedroom communities for miners, and retirees are clustering around the lakeside community of Pine Haven north of Moorcroft. As a result, preschools and kindergartens in towns across the county are full, said Lon Streib, superintendent of Crook County schools.
"For the past three years we've been going up," Streib said. "It's modest growth, and we're seeing most of the growth in the western end of Crook County closest to Campbell County, but the whole county is growing, so we're pretty pleased."
Farther south, Niobrara County's population grew by 2.3 percent between 2006 and 2007, from 2,212 to 2,262. That helped offset a 6 percent overall decrease since 2000.
The expansion of the Wyoming Women's Center in Lusk last summer and the reopening of the local hospital a few years ago contributed to the turnaround.
Statewide, the population grew by more than 10,000 people, or 2 percent, between 2006 and 2007. The total resident population reached 522,830 in July, an all-time high. The growth rate was the ninth-largest among the 50 states, though Wyoming's population is still the smallest.
Energy jobs drive growth
Abundant jobs are driving most of the growth across the state, said Amy Bittner, economist with the state Economic Analysis Division. But they're not the only factor.
More young families are also moving to the state, which is accelerating the birth rate.
"People of working age are coming here and bringing their families and starting families," she added. "That was a component of the population change that we hadn't seen in Wyoming for a while now."
Another factor is the increasing number of formerly transient workers who have settled down in the state, Bittner said. In the past, those workers may have lived in Wyoming part time and commuted to other states on their days off.
"Now it seems that people are moving to Wyoming to work, but now they are also moving here to reside," Bittner said.
All of the state's energy centers continued to add population, Census Bureau figures show.
* Sublette County, where natural gas drilling is thriving, grew nearly 9.5 percent between 2006 and 2007, and almost 34 percent since 2000. The total estimated population is now 7,925.
* Campbell County's population grew by more than 5 percent between 2006 and 2007, and added 20 percent since 2000. The population there is estimated at 40,433.
* Sweetwater County, with both mining and natural gas plays, added almost 3.5 percent between 2006 and 2007, and 4.5 percent since 2000.
The state's urban centers continued their growth, as well, the census figures show.
* Laramie County grew by nearly 1 percent between 2006 and 2007, from 85,783 to 86,353.
The growth is partly the result of a well-diversified community and its location near Colorado's Front Range, Bittner said.
* Natrona County, which gained 2.1 percent, from 70,252 to 71,750, benefited from its location near the center of the state, and from the surrounding energy activity, Bittner said.
"I think we will continue to see population growth there," she said.
The populations in some rural Wyoming counties continue to slip.
* Platte County in eastern Wyoming lost almost 1 percent of its population between 2006 and 2007, and nearly 5 percent since 2000. Nearby Goshen County lost 0.3 percent in 2006-07 and 4.3 percent since 2000.
Bittner said the trend is not unique to Wyoming, and will probably continue without new jobs in those areas.
Another area that saw only modest growth was Teton County in far western Wyoming, which added less than 2 percent between 2006 and 2007. However, the growth since 2000 has reached more than 9.5 percent.
In the future, the upward population trend across most of the state should continue as long as there are plenty of jobs, Bittner said.
"It's counties with energy activity that are driving the population," she added.
Reach capital bureau reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at jared.miller@trib.com.