Between July 1994 and July 1995, Georgia edged ahead of North Carolina by 6,341 residents to become the ninth most populous state in the nation. According to the latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, Georgia's lead over North Carolina has increased to 30,355 residents--and the gap is widening.

Given current growth rates, Georgia should surpass New Jersey--currently the eighth most populous state--in the next few years. Although state population ranking is good for bragging rights, the actual figures are important for the apportionment of Congressional Districts following the 2000 census. Current projections assure the state of at least one--and possibly two--new seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

For a variety of reasons, Georgia continues to experience the highest population growth rate in the South--and one of the highest in the nation. Between July 1995 and July 1996, Georgia's net population grew by 2.0 percent--the highest percentage growth in the 16-state (and District of Columbia) Southern region as designated by the Census Bureau. Moreover, Georgia's growth rate more than doubled the national rate of 0.9 percent

This is not a one-year fluke: Georgia leads the South in overall growth rate since the last decennial census, growing by 13.5 percent between April 1990 and July 1996, followed by Texas (12.6 percent) and Florida (11.3 percent)

Nationally, as Table 4 shows, only Nevada, Arizona, and Utah are currently outpacing Georgia's growth rate. However, because of small population bases to begin with, large percentage increases do not necessarily mean large numerical increases. For example, Nevada--the nation's fastest growing state--only had a net increase of only 70,000 new residents last year.

When looking at population growth in terms of actual numbers of new residents (rather than percentage increase), Georgia ranks fourth in the nation and third in the South.

Another dimension of Georgia demographics is the sources of its population growth. Who are the new Georgians that have arrived over the past year? Is the population surging because births outnumber deaths, because people from other states are coming to Georgia to work or retire, because immigrants from other countries are settling in Georgia, or due to military personnel being assigned to Georgia's  many federal facilities and military bases?

U.S. Census Bureau estimates show that just over half of the state's growth--53 percent--is accounted for by residents of other states moving to Georgia. By subtracting the number of Georgia residents who moved to other states from the number of residents of other states who moved to Georgia last year, the Census Bureau calculated that Georgia had a net domestic migration increase of 76,628 new Georgians. That's more people than than live in Columbia or Lowndes Counties!

As a relative measure of Georgia's ability to attract new residents from other states, only two other states in the nation--Florida and North Carolina ranked higher. Many factors account for Georgia's popularity to people of other states, but employment opportunities, cost of living, quality of life, location, physiographic diversity, and climate are key reasons.

*Georgia's Domestic Net Migration is defined as the net gain of new residents from other U.S. states as determined by subtracting the number of Georgia residents who move to other states from the total number of residents of other U.S. states who move to Georgia during the same time period.

The number of people migrating to Georgia from other countries--particularly Mexico and other Latin American countries--continues to grow. Last year, 10 percent of Georgia's total population growth was accounted for by international net migration, which is determined by subtracting the number of Georgia residents who migrate to foreign countries from the number of migrants from foreign countries who move to Georgia. Last year, Georgia's net gain from international migration was 14,434--which was the tenth highest in the nation.

* Even with the 118,496 international net migration increase, loss of population in other areas resulted in a net population loss for New York of 5,788 persons last year.

For most of this century, Georgia has benefited from extensive military bases throughout the state, resulting in a large military population. As a regional center for many U.S. government agencies, Georgia also has maintained high levels of federal civilian employees. However, last year, neither contributed to Georgia's overall population growth. In fact, the Census Bureau estimates that Georgia experienced a net loss of 519 military and civilian employees.

Another category explaining Georgia's population growth is the natural increase resulting from the number of births exceeding the number of deaths. Between July 1995 and July 1996, Georgia experienced 111,707 births and 58,889 deaths for a net natural increase of 52,818 new residents--37 percent of the state's total increase.

The final Census Bureau component of population increase is termed "residual," and amounts to a statistical adjustment to subnational population modeling procedures used by the bureau. This adjustment resulted in an increase of 1,188 persons--less than 1 percent of the state's total increase.

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