The population of the United States grew by 1 percent a year to an estimated 293.7 million people on July 1, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday.
The Census Bureau said that for the 18th consecutive year, Nevada was the fastest-growing state, with its population increasing 4.1 percent to an estimated 2,334,771. Nevada's population in 1986, when it became the fastest growing, was 993,220.
The estimated U.S. population on July 1, was 293,655,404, up from the July 1, 2003, figure of 290,788,976, the Census Bureau said. The official country figure after the 2000 Census was 281,421,906.
Following Nevada as the fastest-growing states are Arizona, Florida, Idaho and Georgia.
North Carolina (ninth) and New Mexico (10th) were new to the fastest-growing-state list, knocking out California and Hawaii.
The largest state is California with 35.9 million people followed by Texas (22.5 million) and New York (19.2 million). Five other states have population of at least 10 million people.
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