County population nears 1.5 million

Jace Radke

Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2000 | 9:38 a.m.

Clark County is well on its way to eclipsing the population mark of 1.5 million people, according to new estimates released by the county's Department of Comprehensive Planning.

The county has submitted a July 2000 population estimate of 1,428,690 to the state demographer's office, up from 1,321,319 at the same time in 1999, planning spokesman Don Matson said.

"There seems to be a big increase over last year, but some of that may be due to an error in last year's estimates," Matson said. "We had some people falling through the cracks with our old system, but now we have a new system. There may have been as many as 20,000 more people that should have been added to the 1999 total, so the difference is only about 80,000."

That number jibes more closely with the growth rate that Clark County has been experiencing over the past few years, with the population increasing at a rate of about 80,000 a year.

In 1998 Clark County recorded its population at 1,246,193, following a 1997 total of 1,170,113.

The estimates are used by the state, as well as the county, Matson said.

"The numbers will go into the state's determining the funding that is distributed to the county," Matson said. "We also use these numbers as a bench mark when it comes to the census, allowing us to give a thumbs up or thumbs down to those numbers."

The 2000 U.S. Census Bureau figures are not due to be released until March.

According to the Census Bureau, the Las Vegas area, which includes all of Clark County and Mohave County, Ariz., has grown at a 62 percent rate since 1990. The next highest rate was 45 percent for the Laredo, Texas, area, according to census statistics.

The county's calculations show that Henderson's population rose from 176,593 in 1999 to 199,104 in 2000.

Las Vegas grew 22,511 people to 484,454. North Las Vegas went from 108,847 people in 1999 to 125,196 this year, and Mesquite grew from 12,308 to 15,637.

Unincorporated parts of the county, including areas such as Enterprise, Spring Valley and Sunrise Manor, showed a jump from 551,184 in 1999 to 588,748 this year.

Boulder City, which has growth control ordinances, saw a slight decrease from 15,686 last year to 15,551.