Preliminary results of the 2000 census show that Connecticut's population has grown to 3,405,565. This is an increase of
almost 120,000 residents from the census of 1990.Office of the State Comptroller - Nancy Wyman
2001 Comptroller's Report on Connecticut's Economic Health
Preliminary results of the 2000 census show that Connecticut's population has grown to 3,405,565. This is an increase of
almost 120,000 residents from the census of 1990.
The state's population declined in the early part of the nineties to an estimated 3.265 million in 1995 but since then has increased steadily.
The 3.6 percent increase in population, however, was the fourth lowest among the states; only North Dakota, West Virginia and Pennsylvania had lower population growth rates during the last decade.
As a consequence of its relatively low population growth rate, Connecticut will lose one of its six congressional seats. The state will have only five members in the House of Representatives for the first time since the apportionment from the 1930 census.
Connecticut continues to become a more racially and ethnically diverse state. All racial groups, other than the state's white population, have increased. The Hispanic population, which can be of any race, has also increased.
| White | Black | American | Asian and | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indian | Pacific Islander | Hispanic | |||
| 1990 | 2,946,216 | 282,103 | 6,990 | 51,807 | 213,116 |
| 1999 | 2,880,829 | 308,772 | 8,093 | 84,337 | 279,164 |
The state's population aged faster than the national average for much of the decade. However, recent estimates indicate that this trend may have been halted, or even reversed. The United States census figures for 1998 showed the nation's median age at 35.2 and Connecticut's at 37.0. Estimates for 1999, however, again show the state's median age at 37.0 whereas the national median age increased to 35.5.
Throughout the last decade, the Census Bureau estimated that the state's elderly, those 65 and older, were increasing at a significantly higher rate than the 19 and under population, often at more than twice the growth rate of the younger population. Revisions to these federal estimates, coupled with a significant increase in the younger population during the two year period ending July 1, 1999, reveal a very different picture. Since 1990, the elderly population has increased by 5.6 percent; however, the 19 and under population has had a growth rate for the same period of 6.7 percent.
During the last decade, four of Connecticut's five largest cities (those with over 100,000 residents), lost population. Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven and Waterbury had an average population loss of 4.9 percent. Of the largest cities, only Stamford increased its population, at a rate of 2.5 percent. In contrast, all of Connecticut's towns which experienced a growth rate higher than for the state as a whole, 3.6 percent, had less than 40,000 residents.