Real Estate - State and Local

For the second consecutive year, Flagler County, Fla., was the fastest growing county in the country, according to the latest population estimates from the Census Bureau.

Located along the Atlantic seaboard between Daytona Beach and Jacksonville, Flagler recorded a 10.7 gain in population between July 1, 2004 and July 1, 2005. The county, which now has a population of 76,000, also led the nation with a 53 percent increase in residents since the 2000 Census.

According to the government's estimates, which use administrative data and estimates for births, deaths and net migration and are based on Census 2000 population counts updated to reflect any official census corrections, all but one of the ten fastest growing counties are located in either the South or the West.

The loan interloper is Kendall, Ill., near Chicago, which is the third fastest grower, with a 9.4 population gain in the July-to-July period. Grundy, Ill., another Chicago-area county, just missed a top ten ranking, coming in the 11th spot.

Lyon, Nev., near Carson City was the second fastest growing county with a 9.6 percent gain. And Nye, another Nevada County, was sixth at 7.4 percent.

Three other Western counties were fourth, fifth and seventh. They were Rockwell, Tex., near Dallas, up 7.74 percent; Washington, Utah, the only county in the St. George metropolitan area, up 7.66 percent, and Pinal, Ariz., near Phoenix, up 6.9 percent.

Rounding out the top 10 were three counties in Virginia: Loudoun, near Washington, D.C., ranked eighth with a population increase of 6.8 percent; King George, between D.C. and Richmond, was ninth with 6.7 percent gain, and Caroline near Richmond was 10th at 6.5 percent.

On the other side of the population explosion were those counties which actually lost people during the 12-month period. And chief among them was Chattahoochee, Ga., which saw its population decline by 6.2 percent.

Liberty, another Georgia county, ranked second with a 4.9 percent drop. Washington, yet another Georgia jurisdiction was the fourth biggest loser, losing 4.3 percent of its people. And the Georgia county of Terrell was 10th, losing 2 percent of its folks.

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