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Columbia Area Population Statistics

CorgiMatt

By CorgiMatt
in Columbia Coffee House

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The_sandlapper Burg

The_sandlapper

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Got to admit it's exciting to see metro Columbia starting to pickup speed. In 2005-06 it was 49th nationally for gaining the most people in its metro. That's pretty significant, and a long way from 20 years ago! Shows again that people are realizing there are other options in the Carolinas and Georgia for mid-sized to large cities to locate too other than Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh. Guess there is something too Columbia being one of the top ten metros that African Americans are relocating too. Right now the census has the metro projected for 830,000 in 2030 but I still feel that will be a conservative number. Again if the north to south migration trend holds strong Columbia seems to be on its way to a boomtown. Just hope that Innovista and the city's hydrogen initiative pan out. Even if it doesn't I still think the region will do just fine. There is still plenty there already attracting people to the area!

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krazeeboi Gigalopolis

krazeeboi

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I don't think that 2030 projection includes other counties that could potentially be added to the MSA. As of now, the only probable options are Newberry (which is currently part of the CSA, but not MSA) and Orangeburg. Even if that doesn't happen, I still agree that that estimate is a bit conservative, and it's probably best to err on the side of caution.

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Captain Worley Burg

Captain Worley

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But back to the Midlands:

As for Sumter, I thought the county actually lost population?

You know, I keep reading that they are. However, I went over there this weekend and it is amazing how much they've been building over there since the last time I was there, last fall. Apartments seem to be springing up all over.

May be a shift in housing, but it looks more like population growth to me.

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SimCity Whistle-Stop

SimCity

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I don't think that 2030 projection includes other counties that could potentially be added to the MSA. As of now, the only probable options are Newberry (which is currently part of the CSA, but not MSA) and Orangeburg. Even if that doesn't happen, I still agree that that estimate is a bit conservative, and it's probably best to err on the side of caution.

While Newberry and western and central Orangeburg county will certainly be drawn into Columbia's MSA eventually, I fully expect eastern Orangeburg county to be drawn into the Charleston MSA. Orangeburg county has always been split between the two metros. Western Orangeburg county has always had close ties with Augusta-Aiken and especially with Columbia while eastern Orangeburg has always had similar ties to Charleston. In the past eastern Orangeburg was actually a part of Berkeley county and before that was originally a part of Charleston county. I think we can eventually expect Calhoun county to join Columbia's MSA also.

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krazeeboi Gigalopolis

krazeeboi

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While Newberry and western and central Orangeburg county will certainly be drawn into Columbia's MSA eventually, I fully expect eastern Orangeburg county to be drawn into the Charleston MSA. Orangeburg county has always been split between the two metros. Western Orangeburg county has always had close ties with Augusta-Aiken and especially with Columbia while eastern Orangeburg has always had similar ties to Charleston. In the past eastern Orangeburg was actually a part of Berkeley county and before that was originally a part of Charleston county.

Orangeburg County, being a large county with its east-west orientation, sure does get a lot of influence from surrounding metros. But if I were to bet on which MSA or CSA that Orangeburg County would get drawn into, I'd say Columbia due to the fact that the central city of Orangeburg has more of an affiliation with Columbia, meaning there is more of a clustered population base that Columbia could pull from.

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SimCity Whistle-Stop

SimCity

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^Aalso, there are probably a lot more people in O-berg working in Columbia than Charleston or Aiken, making for greater ties with Colatown.

I'll agree with both yourself and Krazeeboi concerning the amount of pull that Columbia exerts on Orangeburg city and the commuter patterns, so looking at it that way, and that's probably how the US Census looks at it as well, I can see Orangeburg county eventually being listed as part of the Columbia. I believe that Sumter will aslo be merged into the greater Columbia MSA in the future as Columbia continues its expansion to the north towards the Richland/Sumter county lines, especially along Hwy 378. I didn't realize that Calhoun county had already been absorbed into the MSA. Perhaps the development around Sandy Run played a part in that?

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Spartan Gigalopolis

Spartan

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Its all about jobs. Most likely what has happened is that the rural areas loost jobs and Columbia gained jobs, so the people who sitll live in the rural areas are now driving further to Columbia for work. Once the level of commuters reaches a certain threshold within a county, it is included in the MSA. Right now Sumter doesn't even meet the minimum for a CSA yet. I think that shows Sumter is not as connected to Columbia as we might think. I can see Sumter changing to the Columbia CSA while remaining its own MSA in 2010.

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Mr.Marc Hamlet

Mr.Marc

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When I commuted Columbia-->Sumter I was AMAZED at the traffic flowing the other way. I'm surprised Sumter isn't already included.

Being from Sumter, I am to surprised that we do not yet have the percentage of commuters to be included in Columbia's MSA (especially being that we're right beside Richland County). As I said before when I do go home on the weekends I am still amazed at the amount of traffic (in which most appear to be commuters going to work) coming from Sumter (headed towards Columbia) on 378.

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Spartan Gigalopolis

Spartan

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County Worker Origin Data

Source: Census 2000

All counties over 1,000 (+Rich & Lex for Sumter)



--------------------------

Richland

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Calhoun Co. SC	   1,255

Fairfield Co. SC	 2,758

Lexington Co. SC	44,237

Newberry Co. SC	  1,930

Orangeburg Co. 	  1,809

Richland Co. SC	129,047

Sumter Co. SC		2,289



--------------------------

Sumter

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Clarendon Co. SC	 2,768

Lee Co. SC		   1,373

Lexington Co. SC	   200

Richland Co. SC		546

Sumter Co. SC	   37,339

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waccamatt Town

waccamatt

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This might have already been discussed on here, but I just happened to notice on the Census Bureau's site that the Columbia MSA gained 12,812 new residents just between July, 2005 and July 2006.

That is pretty significant - 128,000 if we averaged that rate for the 2000-2010 period. Columbia's metro has never grown by 100,000+ between censuses (without adding new counties). If another county or 2 is added for the next census we could see an extremely healthy increase of as much as 200,000.

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krazeeboi Gigalopolis

krazeeboi

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^I think I have a more accurate way to gauge average growth for this decade.

Here are the yearly population change figures of the MSA from 2000 based on Census estimates:

2000-2001: 8,303

2001-2002: 5,799

2002-2003: 9,634

2003-2004: 11,724

2004-2005: 6,395

2005-2006: 12,812

That's a yearly average increase of roughly 9,100, giving a decade figure closer to 91,000. Adding that figure to the 2000 MSA population (647K), this would give Columbia an MSA population of about 738K in 2010--if the current growth trends hold. I expect the yearly change to at least be 10K until the end of the decade, so the figure could be closer to 750K or even 775K, barring any other counties being added to the MSA (which I doubt). I think it's very possible to see the MSA knocking on the door of a 100K increase this decade, if not slightly surpassing that figure.

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  • 11 months later...
CorgiMatt Town

CorgiMatt

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Even Dallas-Forth Worth's 2006-2007 numerical gain was down compared to 2005-2006, but they gained more than any other MSA in the nation, with over 162,000 new inhabitants. An article in the Dallas Morning News cited the housing downturn as the reason.

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sonofaque86 Burg

sonofaque86

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Here is an article in today's State newspaper about population and growth of the municipalities in and around Columbia. The article says that Columbia is about 125,000 as of 2007. That's up about 9,000 residents from the census in 2000 of 116,000... Lexington is the next largest and Blythewood has the largest percent increase

Arcadia Lakes: 836, 3.1 percent decrease

Batesburg-Leesville: 5,545, 0.1 increase

Blythewood: 1,299, 56.9 percent increase

Camden: 7,029, 5.2 percent increase

Cayce: 12,556, 3.1 percent increase

Elgin: 1,074, 33.3 increase

Forest Acres: 9,968, 5.8 percent decrease

Irmo: 11,542, 3 percent increase

Lexington: 14,995, 44 percent increase

West Columbia: 13,907, 4.3 percent increase

Census Finds Slow Growth For Columbia

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waccamatt Town

waccamatt

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The State's headline for that article was quite a misnomer. How can they consider a 1.4% annual growth to be slow? That would a very healthy 14% growth rate between decennial censuses. It has been quite awhile since the city proper grew by 14% between censuses. I think that is really showing the move back into the city because I don't think we annexed any new areas during that time period.

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