New Hampshire diversifying but slowly

New Hampshire's slow growth in the past decade has been fueled by increases in the number of minorities, but it is still among the whitest states in the USA, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.

The state's population grew to 1.32 million, up 6.5% from 1.24 million in 2000. That's well below the national growth rate of 9.7% but gives the state a bigger population boost than its neighbors Vermont (2.8%) and Massachusetts (3.1%.)

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"It's a race among turtles," says Kenneth Johnson, demographer at the Carsey Institute of the University of New Hampshire.

Minorities accounted for much of the growth. The number of non-Hispanic blacks increased to 1% of the population from 0.7%, and the Hispanic population grew to 2.8% from 1.7%.

The change puts the number of minority residents of the state at 5.2%, up from 3.5% a decade ago.

"It would be surprising to me if the minority populations ... were not coming to New Hampshire. They come here to go to school, and there are lots of good jobs here," says Peter Francese, a demographer in Exeter, N.H.

Minority children accounted for about 14% of the population increase.

The number of young white families has declined, and "they took the kids they were going to have with them," Francese says.

Instead, New Hampshire has a large number of adults in their 40s and 50s who will soon make the population grayer, Johnson says. "In the next 10, 20 years it's going to face a significant aging of its population," he says.

Growth was concentrated in the southern part of the state. Hillsborough County, closest to Boston, gained the most residents, nearly 20,000, boosting its population 5.2%. Led by the city of Dover, which grew 11.5%, Strafford County was the fastest-growing: The population increased 9.7%.

Grafton and Carroll counties — called "amenity counties" by demographers because their natural beauty attracts people to move there — grew 9% and 9.5% The only county to lose population was Coos, the northernmost county.

Manchester, the state's largest city, grew 2.4% to 109,565 people, but Nashua, the state's second-largest city, shrank by 0.1%. Derry and Laconia lost residents and Portsmouth's population did not change.