FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2003
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Metro Movers
Los Angeles Area Adds Nearly 800 New Residents a Day
One-Third From Abroad, Census Bureau Reports
The Los Angeles-Long Beach area picked up 782 new residents per day in 2001, nearly one- third of them from abroad, topping a ranking of 152 large metropolitan areas covered by a new survey, the Census Bureau reported today. The data come from the American Community Survey (ACS), which will replace the once-a-decade census long form.
"The 285,457 people who moved to the Los Angeles-Long Beach metropolitan area form a population that is larger than all but 60 cities in the United States," said Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon.
Chicago was second highest in the number of in-migrants; followed by New York; Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif.; and Atlanta (Table 1).
Los Angeles also was home to the highest number of in-migrants from abroad, followed by New York, Chicago, Miami and Houston (Table 2).
"Planners and policy-makers have told us they need demographic information more promptly," said Kincannon. "This is another example of how quickly things change and why we can't wait 10 years to get important data for communities."
The Census Bureau plans to phase in the ACS over the next several years, with the yearly data on demographic changes replacing the long form in the 2010 census. The ACS currently provides information on metropolitan areas of 250,000 or more people. Eventually, it will produce annual long-form-like data on topics such as household income and commute time to work for areas as small as census tracts (4,000 average population).
About 6-in-10 people who moved to Wichita, Kan.; and the Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol, Tenn., metro areas came from nonmetropolitan communities, the highest percentage of any areas in the survey. About half of the new arrivals in Springfield, Mo.; Jackson, Miss.; and Toledo, Ohio, were from nonmetropolitan areas (Table 3).
The data are for large metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) and primary metropolitan statistical areas (PMSAs) of at least 250,000 people. Full definitions are at the Census Bureau's Internet site http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/aboutmetro.html. About 30 large metropolitan areas are not included in the rankings released today because some MSA and PMSA counties were not part of the ACS, which is still in development. The ACS sampled about 820,000 households nationwide. Statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling error.
Table 1. Metro Areas with Highest Number of In-Migrants | |||
Metro Area | Household Population |
Total In-migrants |
Per-Day Average |
Los Angeles-Long Beach | 9,462,246 | 285,457 | 782 |
Chicago | 8,192,579 | 233,690 | 640 |
New York | 9,112,687 | 222,282 | 609 |
Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif. | 3,322,803 | 203,127 | 557 |
Atlanta | 4,187,003 | 183,143 | 502 |
Table 2. Metro Areas with Highest Number of In-Migrants from Abroad | ||||
Metro Area | Household Population |
Total In-migrants |
From Abroad |
Percent From Abroad |
Los Angeles-Long Beach | 9,462,246 | 285,457 | 91,131 | 32 |
New York | 9,112,687 | 222,282 | 87,683 | 39 |
Chicago | 8,192,579 | 233,690 | 87,567 | 37 |
Miami | 2,243,712 | 102,842 | 61,083 | 59 |
Houston | 4,218,012 | 181,649 | 54,241 | 30 |
Table 3. Metro Areas with Highest Percentage of Non-Metro In-Migrants | ||||
Metro Area | Household Population |
Total In-migrants |
Not From a Metro Area |
Percent Not From a Metro Area |
Wichita, Kan. | 540,711 | 39,848 | 24,432 | 61 |
Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol, Tenn. | 460,803 | 14,643 | 8,509 | 58 |
Springfield, Mo. | 317,980 | 18,722 | 9,776 | 52 |
Jackson, Miss. | 428,220 | 16,002 | 8,180 | 51 |
Toledo, Ohio | 600,447 | 30,536 | 15,102 | 49 |