New Population Estimates For Nevada Rely Less On Immigration
LAS VEGAS — Nevada has released new population projections for how the state will grow over the next few decades. The factors driving growth in the coming years will be different than those from the previous decade.
Since the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of people moved to Nevada for jobs in the construction and hospitality industries, including significant numbers of Latinos.
Between 2000 and 2012 the Latino population in the state nearly doubled.
The new numbers released this week by the state demographer's office, project that over the next decade, Nevada will grow much more slowly. The numbers also suggest that growth will be driven more by birth rate than by immigration. And Latinos will again play a significant role.
Latina women will have the most babies in the state because they account for the majority of women of childbearing age. Nevada estimates that the state's Latino population will increase by 26 percent over the next decade — that's three times the predicted growth rate of the entire state.
