Country Facts and Folklore
By Andy Reddick

LATEST POPULATION ESTIMATES FOR 2006

Each year, in May and June, the US Census Bureau releases certain statistics of population estimates made on July 1 of the preceding year. Thus some of the estimates for July 1, 2006 are now made available to the public.

The State of Iowa increased its population by more than 17,000 during the past year, to 2,982,085. Van Buren County also increased in population by 104 over the previous year. On July 1, 2005 Van Buren’s population was 7,732; on July 1, 2006 it stood at 7,836.

A trend of population decrease has taken place for a century. Van Buren’s population in 1900 was more than 17,000. Either the increase from 2005 to 2006 represents a temporary glitch in the decrease trend, or the county reached bottom and is beginning to reverse the trend.

Town populations for 7/1/2006 are not yet available. The figures for 7/1/2005 continue to show decline for most of them. There are no data for Douds, Leando and Selma since 2000. In 2005 Birmingham had 427; Bonaparte 455; Cantril 259; Farmington 731; Keosauqua 1,076; Milton 502; Mt. Sterling 40 and Stockport 286. The remainder of the county had shown an increase of 33 people.

I will include the 2006 town populations when they are available.

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Contributed to the Van Buren Co. IAGenWeb Project by Andy Reddick
http://iagenweb.org/vanburen/