Population of Mitchell down a bit, say estimates

Mitchell’s population decreased in 2008, according to population estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The July 1, 2008, estimate for Mitchell is 14,752, which is down about 0.4 percent from the 2007 estimate of 14,808.

Statewide, meanwhile, the population jumped past 800,000 for the first time. The city-level numbers show that the state’s growth was pushed mostly by the rapid growth of Sioux Falls-area cities such as Harrisburg (the state’s fastest growing city last year, at 15 percent), Tea (11.5 percent), Brandon (7 percent) and Hartford (6.8 percent).

Only 10 of the state’s 309 cities experienced growth of 3 percent or more last year, according to the estimates. Ninety-two cities experienced positive growth, 51 experienced no change and more than half of the state’s cities — 166 of them — were estimated to have declined in population in 2008.

The state’s two largest cities grew at about the same rate in 2008. Rapid City grew an estimated 2.36 percent to a population of 65,491, and Sioux Falls grew an estimated 2.3 percent to a population of 154,997.

New Orleans was the nation’s fastest growing large city in 2008, at a rate of 8.2 percent.

“As the 2010 Census approaches, these population estimates provide a sense of the population trends throughout the decade,” Tom Mesenbourg, the Census Bureau’s acting director, said in a news release.

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