Suffolk county gained population in 2007 according to latest estimate

The United States Census Bureau released July 1, 2007, population estimates for counties this morning. Suffolk County, home of Boston, had an estimated population of 713,049, up from 710,139 in 2006, and almost 24,000 more people than the Census counted in the county in 2000. These are pretty dramatic upwards revisions of previous population estimates for Suffolk county. Last year’s estimate for the 2006 population in Suffolk was 687,610 people.

The table below shows the Census Bureau’s population estimates for Suffolk County, Massachusetts, from 2007 through 2006. The Old estimate (”Orig. est.”) column shows the estimates from last year’s data release, while the current estimate (”Curr. est.”) column shows the revised etimates released in 2007. The “Diff.” column shows the difference between original and current estimate, not year-by-year growth in estimated population.

Suffolk county population estimates 2000 - 2007, original and revised.
Year	Orig. est.	Curr. est.	Diff.
July 1, 2007	n/a	713,049	n/a
July 1, 2006	687,610	710,139	+22,529
July 1, 2005	691,965	707,170	+15,205
July 1, 2004	694,582	705,620	+11,038
July 1, 2003	699,359	708,010	+8,651
July 1, 2002	702,305	708,692	+6,387
July 1, 2001	700,988	705,168	+4,180
July 1, 2000	689,985	690,883	+898
April 1, 2000 (Estimates Base)	689,807	n/a	n/a
April 1, 2000 (Census 2000)	689,807	n/a	n/a

What I call original estimates in the table above are in fact revisions of an earlier set of estimates. In the table below you can can see all three sets of population estimates for Suffolk county side-by-side:

	Suffolk County, Massachusetts
	Original estimate	Revised estimate	Current estimate
July 1, 2007	n/a	n/a	713,049
July 1, 2006	n/a	687,610	710,139
July 1, 2005	654,428	691,965	707,170
July 1, 2004	664,263	694,582	705,620
July 1, 2003	675,738	699,359	708,010
July 1, 2002	685,072	702,305	708,692
July 1, 2001	691,223	700,988	705,168
July 1, 2000	689,943	689,985	690,883
April 1, 2000 (Census 2000)*	689,807	689,807	-

What the table above tells you is that at this time two years ago the Census Bureau thought Suffolk had about 53,000 fewer residents in 2005 than what it now estimates the county had that year.

Since Suffolk had about 100,000 more residents than the city of Boston did in 2000, and since the Bureau’s various population estimates for the county and the city has never been more than about 115,000 people apart, I believe the 2007 population estimate for Boston will top 600,000. The current estimate for Boston’s 2006 population was 590,763, but was changed to 595,698 in November last year, after Boston challenged the estimate (yes, it really was last year, as I wrote initially).

According to the same sources (the 2000 Census and subsequent population estimates) Massachusetts’s population has grown from 6,349,097 in 2000 to 6,449,755 in 2007, suggesting that almost a quarter of the state’s population growth took place in Suffolk County. That seems somewhat hard to believe, but we’ll see what can be gleaned from coming population estimates and American Community Survey updates.

Barnstable and Berkshire counties have lost population since 2000, while Worcester county’s has grown to 781,352 from 750,963.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 in Boston. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.