Movin’ on up

No real surprise here, but Riverside County was the fastest growing county percentage-wise in California in 2003. The county, which added 76,000 residents in 2003, has been among the top 3 fastest growing counties for the past 3 years and in the top 10 for much of the past 20 years.

Riverside County is the fastest-growing county in the state, according to figures released Wednesday that show the Inland area is home to about one of every 10 Californians.

Riverside Press-Enterprise – February 12, 2004

Likewise, neighboring San Bernardino County also found itself among the fastest growing counties in California. The county added 52,000 residents in 2003 — enough to place it as the sixth-fastest growing county, percentage-wise.

Together, the 2-county area added 128,000 residents in 2003 — about the size of Pasadena.

Individually, San Bernardino’s 1.87 million and Riverside’s 1.76 million residents rank them as No.’s 4 and 5 respectively within the state of California, behind Los Angeles County (10 million), Orange County (3 million) and San Diego County (2.98 million).

Together, the two-county, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan region boasts 3.6 million residents (2003) — enough to be California’s second-largest PMSA. An amazing fact considering the region was home to only 1.56 million residents in 1980 — an increase of 57% since the 1980 Census.

If ranked separately using 2000 Census data, the region would rank as the 13th largest metropolitan area in the United States — sandwiched between San Francisco-Oakland (4.12 million) and Phoenix-Mesa (3.25 million).

Related

• Riverside Press-Enterprise – County fastest growing in state (Feb. 12)

Sources: Riverside Press-Enterprise (PE-20040212), California Department of Finance; US Census Bureau; NOTE: Published dates for some online versions of newspaper articles cited may not match their archival source date.

2024 PAGE UPDATE: Added newspaper citation/insert; removed outdated link to newspaper article.