Georgia has added nearly a

half million new residents just in the first three years of the new millennium,

moving past New Jersey into 9th on the list of the country's most

populous states, the Census bureau announced last week.

According to the annual July

1 Census estimate of population for all 50 states and Puerto Rico, Georgia

was home to 8,684,715 people midway through 2003.

That's 498,262 people

more than were shown living in the Peach State in the official 2000 Census,

when 8,186,453 Georgians were counted, and reflects an annual increase

of about 2 percent per year. At that rate, Georgia's population will

pass the 9 million mark in 2005.

County and city 2003 population

estimates were not included in this report, but will be released in early

spring.

Nationwide, Georgia was the

4th-fastest growing state from July 1, 2002 to July 1 this year, a period

which saw the nation's population surge to 290 million, or a rate

of 1.0 percent.

Even at that slow rate of growth,

the number of people in the United States could pass the 300 million mark

by 2007. Officials noted the strong growth even as the nations economy

still struggles to come out of a deep recession, but said more than half

(55 percent) of the population growth between 2002 and 2003 resulted from

natural increase, with the remaining 45 percent coming from net international

migration.

Among the nation's 10

fastest-growing states were four in the Rocky Mountains: Nevada (ranking

first for the 17th consecutive year with a growth rate of 3.4 percent),

Arizona (second), Idaho (fifth) and Utah (eighth). The remaining top 10

states were all coastal: Florida (third), Texas (fourth), Georgia (sixth),

Delaware (seventh), California (ninth) and Hawaii (10th).

States that moved into the

top 10 this year were Delaware, California and Hawaii.

The South now accounts for

36 percent of the nation's total population, with the West comprising

23 percent, the Midwest 22 percent and the Northeast 19 percent.

California remained the most

populous state in the nation with 35.5 million people in 2003. The second

and third most populous states were Texas (22.1 million) and New York

(19.2 million).

Georgias move up to 9th on

the ranking of the 10 most populous states was the only change in that

order.

The population estimate for

Puerto Rico for July 1, 2003, was 3.9 million, up about 19,000 since July

1, 2002. Puerto Rico's rate of increase was 0.5 percent.