Where households are booming - in relation to population changes

American Demographics, Nov, 1997 by Matthew Cravatta

Household change generally parallels population change. This is why household growth between 1990 and 1996 was fastest in Nevada, at 32 percent, according to recent Census Bureau estimates. The smallest gains in new households were predominantly in slower-growing northeastern states, with the exception of Delaware, where household totals climbed more than 11 percent.

Nevada is a magnet for migrants of all ages. Even its contingent of householders aged 25 to 34 grew in the early 1990s, by 14 percent, although this young-adult group declined 7 percent nationwide. Four other fast-growing states also saw gains in householders aged 25 to 34: Arizona, Georgia, Utah, and Delaware. Wyoming and Alaska saw the biggest declines, at 26 percent and 25 percent, respectively.

Alaska didn't lose out altogether, though. It ranked tenth among states for total household growth between 1990 and 1996, partly because it ranked first for growth among householders aged 55 to 64, at 37 percent, followed by Nevada at 29 percent. It ranked second for growth among householders aged 65 and older (40 percent), after first-place Nevada (43 percent).

Alaska also ranked second for growth in households headed by people aged 45 to 54 (55 percent, compared with Colorado's 56 percent). But this isn't the great achievement it might seem. Even the District of Columbia, which lost 4 percent of its households between 1990 and 1996, had a 9 percent increase in householders aged 45 to 54, courtesy of the omnipresent baby boom.

Printed tables from Estimates of Housing Units and Households of States: 1990 and 1996 (PPL-73) are available from the Census Bureau's Public Information Office at (301) 457-3030, or on the Internet at http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/housing.html.>

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