Census report details life in Nevada

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Thursday, May 9, 2002 | 10:54 a.m.

A U.S. Census Bureau report issued today echoes previous data showing that growth was Nevada's norm during the '90s -- but it also offers up nuggets of information about life in the Silver State that may appeal to planners and the simply curious alike.

The report, described as a "one-stop shop for data at the level of cities and counties nationwide" by Robert Bernstein, public affairs specialist for the bureau, is built on Census 2000 data, a 1997 census of the nation's businesses and other government agency data.

It is done on an irregular basis and was last compiled in 1994.

The report placed three Nevada cities in the top 10 fastest-growing cities from 1990 to 2000. There were two Nevada cities in the top 15 ranked by increases in population during the same period. And Clark County ranked second among counties nationwide in private housing building permits in the year 2000.

But the report also showed that three of Nevada's cities placed near the bottom nationwide in city government taxes per capita, and two Nevada cities were among the lowest in the percentage of the total population that rents rather than owns.

Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas were in the bottom 20 on a list of 232 cities ranked by taxes per capita in 1996-97, for example.

"This may be due to a generalized tendency to have more taxes through gaming in Nevada, together with a centralized system that has taxes collected at the state level and distributed back to the local level through intergovernmental transfers," said Keith Schwer, director for the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

As for renters versus owners, in North Las Vegas, only 29.9 percent of the population rented in 2000. In Henderson, the figure was 29.5 percent.

According to Jeff Hardcastle, Nevada state demographer, the northern part of North Las Vegas has been the site of extensive construction of single family homes during the last decade, based on easily obtainable water permits and low land costs.

"In Henderson, there was a period during the late '80s and early '90s where multi-family condominiums and apartments were built, but then local government took steps to control that sort of development," he said. "Since then, you've seen more single-family homes built there."

Both cities were also in the top five nationwide in rate of growth -- Henderson, with a 169.4 percent population increase from 1990 to 2000, was second and North Las Vegas, with 140.8 percent, was third.

"Obviously, affordable housing factors in here," Schwer said.

Additionally, North Las Vegas outstripped the rest of the state in another boom seen throughout the '90s -- the growth of Hispanics.

The city ranked 35th in the nation in this category -- 37.6 percent of the total population is Hispanic. Statewide, 19.7 percent of the total population is Hispanic.

Data for North Las Vegas also showed that 10.4 percent of the city's population was under 5 years old in 2000, compared to a statewide rate of 7.3 percent -- a figure that could be related to the large Hispanic population, which tends to have high birthrates, Hardcastle said.

Another nugget gleaned from the report should come as no surprise -- North Las Vegas, Las Vegas and Henderson tied for first place as the driest cities in the country from 1961-1990, with an average of less than five inches of rain a year. This last figure, to be sure, is unlikely to change in years to come.