RI County population appears to be growing

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By Ed Tibbetts | Thursday, March 20, 2008 | 31 comment(s)

After years of declining population, Rock Island County may be reversing that trend, according to new government data.

A U.S. Census Bureau report, being released today, says population in Rock Island County grew to 147,329 people on July 1, 2007, up 876 people from July 1, 2006.

The level of growth is small, less than a percentage point, but the apparent reversal is a welcome break from years of negatively trending population figures.

“I’m pleasantly surprised,” said Patrick Burke, Moline’s economic development manager.

For years, the little population growth that’s occurred in the Quad-Cities has been confined to the Iowa side of the Mississippi River, where housing opportunities are more plentiful.

However, the new figures say Rock Island County’s growth last year nearly matched Scott County’s.

The Census Bureau said population on the Iowa side of the river went up 992 people, to 162,687, in the same one-year period.

The latest figures should be viewed with some caution.

Last year, the Census Bureau estimated that Rock Island County’s population went up

91 people between 2005 and 2006, only to revise that estimate this year to a loss of 245 people.

Demographers also are leery of placing too much emphasis on a single year’s figures.

However, this year’s estimate is a great deal higher than the previous year, and it’s the second time in a row the government has said population went up.

Officials in Rock Island County also say they are seeing encouraging signs as they’ve worked to improve housing stock.

“I think you have seen more new development occur and more new housing starts in the last few years than in the previous 10,” said Alan Carmen, planning and redevelopment administrator for the City of Rock Island.

Rock Island’s downtown District has seen a growth in housing the past few years, and there’s been some infill as well, Carmen said.

Housing starts are still fairly small in Rock Island County, but two new subdivisions are in the planning stages in Moline, a sign of better prospects.

“We haven’t had a new one in a long time,” Burke said. “It’s been years and years.”

Officials also note employment at the Rock Island Arsenal has gone up the past few years. At the Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center alone, employment has increased by about 600 people, Eric Cramer, a spokesman, said.

Figures weren’t available Wednesday for where the new employees are living and whether they came from outside the area.

Even with the apparent blip, Rock Island County’s population still has suffered since the 2000 Census. Government figures say the county lost 1,845 people since then.

Scott County’s population, on the other hand, grew by 4,018 people, according to the estimates.

In both counties, the excess of births over deaths and an influx of foreign immigrants tends to account for population increases, rather than the movement of people to the area from other places in the United States.

In fact, Scott County’s growth has paled compared to Iowa’s largest counties, Linn and Polk, which have had more success enticing people to move there.

Those counties saw population increases between 2006 and 2007 of 1.5 percent and 1.75 percent, respectively, far more than the 0.6 percent growth in Scott County.

Statewide, Iowa’s population grew by 15,480 people to 2,988,046, an uptick of about half a percentage point. Illinois grew by 75,506 people to 12,852,548, also a half point increase.

Ed Tibbetts can be contacted at (563) 383-2327 or etibbetts@qctimes.com.