Missouri and the Nation Population Change of Missouri and the United States During the 1990s The U.S. population increased from 248,709,873 in 1990 to 281,421,906 in 2000 - an increase 13.2 percent - well above the 10.5 percent population increase during the 1980. With the exception of the District of Columbia all states gained population during the 1990s. Missouri and Its Neighbors Map 1 click map for larger version Missouri's 2000 population of 5.59 million ranked 17th in population among the 50 states. Although Missouri's population increased by 9.3 percent during the 1990s, well above the 4.1 percent population growth rate in the 1980s, the state dropped from the 15th most populated state in 1990 to 17th. Missouri's fall in rank occurred because, as shown in Table 1 and displayed on Map 1, there were 25 states whose population increased by more than 10 percent during the 1990s. Those states were mostly concentrated in the West, Southwest and Southeast. Among Missouri's eight neighboring states, only Illinois has a larger population. With the exception of Tennessee whose 2000 population was virtually identical with Missouri, the remaining six neighbors had a smaller population. In order, Kentucky had a population of 4.0 million, Oklahoma had 3.5 million, Iowa had 2.9 million, Kansas and Arkansas each and Nebraska had 1.7 million. The Largest States California had the nation's largest population in both 1990 and 2000. The California population increased from 29.7 million in 1990 to 33.9 million in 2000. The 4.1 million increase in population during the 1990s was also the greatest increase among the states. Following California, Texas has, in 2000, become the nation's second most populated state with 20.85 million, followed by New York with 18.98 million and Florida with 15.98 million. After those four states, Illinois with 12.42 million, Pennsylvania with 12.28 million and Ohio with 11.35 million were the only additional states with a 2000 population in excess of 10 million. These seven states had a combined population of 125.7 million in 2000 - 44.7 percent of the nation's total population. Among the seven most populated states, only Florida with an increase of 23.5 percent, Texas with an increase of 22.8 percent and California with an increase of 13.8 percent had a rate of population increase above the national average. The remaining four of the seven most populated states each had a population growth rate during the 1990s well below the national average. Among the four, Illinois had the greatest growth rate with an increase 8.6 percent (rank 34th nationally), followed by New York with an increase of 5.5 percent, (rank 42nd), Ohio with an increase of 4.7 percent (rank 44th) and Pennsylvania with an increase of 3.4 percent (rank 48th). The Smaller States Comparatively, most states have a relatively small population. After the seven largest states discussed above, there are seven additional states having a population of between six and ten million. The remaining 36 states have a population of less than 6 million - 17 of those had a population of less than two million and, of those, seven had a population of less than a million. Two of the smallest seven, Vermont and Delaware, are on the East Coast, the remaining five including Alaska are northern plains states. Detailed Tables Total Population, 2000, for All U.S. States HTML PDF Total Population, 1990, for All U.S. States HTML PDF Change in Total Population, 1990-2000, for All U.S. States HTML PDF Percent Change in Total Population, 1990-2000, for All U.S. States    HTML PDF