The United States Census Bureau released new data yesterday showing that Texas gained more people in the last year than any other state. Florida and California used to be the fastest-growth states, but Texas has overtaken them in both total population growth and in percentage of population growth.
Between July of 2005 and July of 2006, Texas gained 579,275 new people. Approximately 120,000 to 160,000 of the new Texans are a result of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. But even if you subtract the Hurricane Katrina immigrants, Texas still leads the nation in population growth. Here are the figures:
TOTAL POPULATION GROWTH
1. Texas...............579,275
2. Florida...............321,697
3. California...............303,402
4. Georgia...............231,388
5. Arizona...............213,311
GROWTH PERCENTAGE
1. Arizona...............3.6%
2. Nevada...............3.5%
3. Idaho...............2.6%
4. Georgia...............2.5%
5. Texas...............2.5%
HOW THE INCREASE IS HAPPENING
Natural [births minus deaths].....235,558
Domestic immigration.....218,745
International immigration.....125,770
I don't have any problem with our new citizens, but I do wonder if Texas has the water resources to sustain this kind of growth. Because of global warming, our droughts are occurring more often and lasting longer. Many of our aquifers have a water level that is dropping.
It is urgent with this kind of population growth, that our officials in Austin address the water issue. If we put it off any longer, we won't be able to sustain the population we have, let alone the huge population increases.
Texas now has 23.5 million people. By 2010, there will be 25 million Texans.
Think of all the water we will have after the seas rise and Galveston and Texas City are under the Gulf of Mexico. Texas could hand out boondoggle privatized desalinization contracts to turn it all into fresh water.
ReplyDeleteIt'll all be fine.
They moved to Texas?
ReplyDeleteThat must be a boatload of stupid people!