More people (of course) but there’s also another trend …

According to the St. George Chamber of Commerce, St. George was ranked as the #1 metropolitan growth area in the United States from 1990 to 2000. (According to the Brookings Study below, it’s only number 12, however. Figures don’t lie but liars figure.) But it only takes a drive through the suburbs to convince you that it’s growing like crazy. That’s the right word: “crazy”. Every time we drive through, it seems a new housing tract has gobbled up a new chunk of the desert.

But it’s a skewed growth.

Color Country is also a top contender for the number of us in the senior age group. The national average for people sixty-five and over is just over 12%. In Washington County, that number is over 16%. In fact, a study by the Brookings Institution put St. George at number 1 in the nation among small metropolitan areas in the growth of the senior population. Here’s the top five*:

Dunno what Anchorage is doing there … I was in Anchorage recently and the thing I remember about it was the great micro-breweries for a town that size. I’m not sure that would attract a whole lot of seniors, but then maybe I just don’t understand.

*Source:
William H. Frey
The Brookings Institution
November 27, 2006