WSP04126

• File Number: 8220.100.50
• Description: CRSP - Power Marketing
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 6/1/1958
• Author: Fed. Power Comm.
• Title: Power Market Survey -Colorado River Storage Project
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

Federal Power Commissi6n

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The population of the region in 1930 was 2,679,763 persons. By 1950
the population had increased to 3,808,259 persons, an overall gain of 42
percent. From 1930 to 1940, the population increase was a moderate 11
percent. However, between 1940 and 1950 'the population increased 27.7
percent -- an annual average rate, of 2.5 !percent or more than double the
rate of the preceding decade and almost qouble the rate for the nation as
a whole. 1

I
Although the rate'of increase in th~ region between 1940 and 1950 was
high, the incres$es in some of the subdivisions we~e spectacular. In Ari-
zona the increase during this period was 'over 49 percent and in Southern
Nevada it amounted to an astonishing 151t ipercent. All areas of the region
increased more rapidly than the nation.

Recent estimates, by the Bureau of ~e Census, available by states only,
indicate that the region's population inc;reased approximatflly 20 percent .
between 1950 and 1955. During that periqd the percentage growths of Nevada
and Arizona ranked first and second among the states in the nation with in-
creases of about 51 and 36 percent, respectively. Unofficial estimates by
Sales Management publication of May 10, 1956, which gives population esti-
mates by counties, show that the population in the Southern Nevada area of
the power marj<et region increased about 64 percent -- a faster rate than
experienced statewide. The state of Wyonjing with less than 7 percent gain
had the smallest population increase betw;een 1950 and 1955, while those of
the states of Utah, Colorado, and New Me~ico ranged between 15 and 17 per-
cent for the same periOd. '

Table 3 shows the population of each area for the census years1930,
1940, and 1950, together with estimates for 1960, 1970, and 1980. The
table also shows the actual and estimat~d distribution between fann and
nonfarm dwellers.

.

For the region as a whole the farm ~opulation decreased from 25 per-
cent of the total in 1930 to 14 percent ~n 1950. By 1980 it is expected
that less than 5 percent of the region's Ipopulation,will live on farms.

, .
The 1940 and 1950 populations of the largest cities in the region
(20,000 population or more in i950) and the percent increase for the ten
years for each are shown in the following tabulation:

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