Numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau show Idaho’s population grew by 17.3 percent over the past 10 years — second only to Utah, which saw an 18.4 percent percent change in population. Much of that growth was concentrated around the southwestern Idaho cities of Boise and Nampa, with Ada County growing by 26 percent.
The Ada County city of Meridian, meanwhile, became one of the 10 fastest-growing cities in the U.S., jumping from just over 75,000 people in 2010 to more than 117,600 residents in 2020.
Idaho remains one of the less-diverse states in the nation, ranking 41st on the Census bureau’s “Diversity Index,” which measures the probability that two people chosen at random will be from different race and ethnicity groups. In the 2020 Census, almost 79 percent of residents self-identified at white alone — compared with about 84 percent of residents describing themselves as white but not Hispanic or Latino in 2010.
The percent of people identifying themselves as being in other race or ethnicity groups remained mostly flat, with a couple of exceptions. More than 4 percent of residents described themselves as being two or more races and not Hispanic or Latino. Idaho’s Hispanic and Latino population continued to grow, increasing by 2 percent over the past decade to about 13 percent of residents. (AP)
