Go West and South

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Go West, Young Man, Go West. And South!

While the populations of North Dakota, Iowa, West Virginia and Washington, D.C., will be stagnant or decline between now and 2030, a dozen states will experience population growth of 30 percent or more, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. They are Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington.

Eight states-California, Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Tennessee-will grow between 20 and 30 percent by 2030. The remaining states, most of them in the Midwest and Northeast, can expect increases of less than 20 percent.

While the South and West are projected to grow by 52 and 35, percent respectively, the Northeast and Midwest will grow by just 5-10 percent.

The Census Bureau has great website with demographics for every state listed next to the same data for the nation as a whole. You can go to http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/index.html to see how our state ranks on population, home ownership rates, foreign-born residents, education, per-capita income and much more.

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