Nevada's bragging rights as the fastest-growing state in the nation -- a title it has held for 19 years in a row -- have fallen to Arizona.
According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released today, Arizona edged out the Silver State's growth rate by 0.1 percentage points in the 2005-06 fiscal year.
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But Nevada officials said they aren't concerned about the state's economy.
"Yes, it's nice to be number one and nobody likes to be number two, but we're still growing at a fairly good clip," state Demographer Jeff Hardcastle said.
Nevada continued to outpace the other 48 states, growing more than three times the national average.
According to the Census Bureau, Nevada's population grew 3.5 percent from July 1, 2005, to July 1, 2006, when it gained 83,228 new residents to reach 2.49 million.
Arizona grew by 213,311 residents to more than 6.16 million, a 3.6 percent increase.
The nation as a whole grew 1 percent, or by 2.89 million, to 299.39 million during that time, the report said.
"Even if we were to start slowing down to 3 percent, we're still having large numbers of people move here every year," Hardcastle said.
In Nevada, births were roughly twice the number of deaths, accounting for an overall gain of 18,316.
Most of Nevada's growth came from people arriving from elsewhere. Domestic migration totaled 53,105, while 12,488 came from other countries, the figures show.
Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said he was disappointed that Nevada lost the title, but noted that was mostly attributed to Arizona's growth and not with anything wrong with Nevada.
"It's not surprising, because Arizona has always been right behind us," Schwer said.
Schwer said it's not altogether bad that Nevada is now second in growth.
"There's nothing inherently good about growing very fast if incomes are not increasing," he said, adding Nevadans have continued to benefit from salary improvements. "Just numbers increasing is not an indicator of economic prosperity."
Officials said Nevada's growth and economic indicators were strong.
Some 40,000 new hotel rooms are planned or under construction in Las Vegas, Hardcastle said. Each room generates roughly 1.5 direct new jobs, and one job elsewhere within the community.
He also said Nevada's rural communities have been making a comeback since the mining industry experienced a slump in the past few years.
Arizona added about 32,000 immigrants in the past year. It added four times that many people who were relocating from other states. The biggest donor state: California.
"It used to be merely a retirement magnet for Midwest seniors," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "Now it's also a front door for immigrants from Mexico and an escape hatch for Californians seeking affordable housing."
At the other end of the scale, Louisiana lost nearly 220,000 people, more than any other state, in the year following Hurricane Katrina, according to the Census Bureau.
The Census Bureau estimates annual state population totals using local records of births and deaths, IRS records of people moving within the United States, and census statistics on immigrants. The bureau does not distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants, and most experts believe that the number of illegal immigrants is underestimated.
Among the findings for 2006:
• Texas gained the most people, about 580,000, followed by Florida, California, Georgia and Arizona.
• North Carolina broke into the top 10 in total population, nudging New Jersey to 11th.
• Four states and the District of Columbia lost population: Louisiana, New York, Rhode Island and Michigan.
Many other states lost people who relocated elsewhere in the country, increasing their populations only through births and immigration.
The South had a net gain of a half million people relocating there from other parts of the United States, while the Northeast had a net loss of 375,000 people and the Midwest lost 184,000, according to the census estimates.
The West added 53,000 people from other parts of the nation, even though California lost nearly 300,000 people to other states.
Texas passed Florida as the top destination, in part from people fleeing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Louisiana had been losing people to other states for years before Hurricane Katrina hit, though the storm exacerbated the problem, said Elliott Stonecipher, a veteran Louisiana demographer and pollster.
The Associated Press reporters Sandra Chereb and Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report.
