The Most Rapidly Growing Counties

Most of the counties that had significant population gains during the 1980s had even larger gains during the 1990s. Generally those counties extend along a line from Columbia to Branson, and counties on the periphery of St. Louis. From 1990 to 2000 the largest numerical increase by far occurred in St. Charles County (71,000), followed by Greene County (33,000) and Clay (31,000). The largest percentage increase occurred in Christian County (66.3 percent) followed by Taney (55.3 percent) and Stone (50.2 percent). Those three counties adjoin in a cluster just south of Springfield. After those three counties the next greatest percentage growth occurred in Camden (Lake of Ozarks) and Lincoln (suburban St. Louis) tied at 34.8 percent. St. Charles, at 33.4 percent, was not far behind. Webster, adjoining Springfield to the east, had a 30.7 percent population growth. Those seven counties are the only ones whose rate of population growth from 1990 to 2000 exceeded 30 percent. It is significant that 4 of the 7 most rapidly growing counties border Greene County (Springfield).

Following those seven counties there were 13 counties whose population growth was between 20 and 30 percent. Of those counties 5 are in the Southwest region (Barry, McDonald, Hickory, Dallas, Polk), 3 are in the Lake of Ozarks area (Benton, Morgan, Moniteau), two are in the Kansas City Metro area (Cass and Platte) and two are in Central Missouri (Boone and Callaway).

It is significant also that population increased by between 10 and 20 percent in 35 additional counties.

Altogether nearly half of all Missouri counties (55) had population growth of more than 10 percent from 1990 to 2000.

Changes in the Metro Counties

Twenty-two of Missouri’s 115 counties are now classified as metropolitan. They are included as a separate group in the attached table. Taken together the population of the metro counties was 3,794,801 in 2000, up from 3,490,871 in 1990: an increase of 303,930 (8.7%). Metro growth of the 1990s was up significantly from the 1980s when the metro population increased by only 177,056 (5.3%). The metro population accounted for 67.4 percent of Missouri’s population in 1980, 68.2 percent in 1990 and 67.8 percent in 2000. It is interesting that the metro population declined to 67.8 percent of the total state population by 2000. This occurred even though four rapidly growing rural counties, Lincoln, Warren, Webster and Clinton, were reclassified by the Census Bureau as metro counties in the early 1990s.

In the Kansas City metro area all seven counties gained with the greatest increase in Cass County 28.7%, followed by Platte 27.5%, Clay 19.9%, and Clinton 14.4%. Three counties Jackson, 3.4%, Ray 6.3% and Lafayette 6.0% had much more modest gains. In the Kansas City metro area there was more significant population growth on the Kansas side.

The most rapidly growing metro area was Springfield with Christian County leading growth with 66.3%, followed by Webster with 30.7% and Greene with 15.6%.

The Joplin metro area had more significant growth than during the 1980s with Newton increasing by 18.4% and Jasper by 15.7%.

Columbia, Boone County is the only single county metro area. Boone increased by 20.5% from 1990 to 2000.

The slowest growing area was Buchanan-Andrew (St. Joseph). Buchanan increased by 3.5% and Andrew by 12.7%. However this is a change from the 1980s when Buchanan County had a 5.5% loss.

Changes in Rural North Missouri

There are 33 rural counties north of the Missouri River. All 33 lost population during the 1980s; 19 of them lost more than 10 percent; three (Worth, Knox and Mercer) lost more than 18 percent. The total population of those counties was 404,129 in 1980 and it declined to 373,804 in 1990 – a loss of 30,325.

But from 1990 to 2000 the total population of those 33 counties increased from 373,804 to 383,057 – a gain of 9,253. From 1990 to 2000 only 12 of the 33 lost population and even among those, the amount of population decline was much less. Of the 19 counties that lost more than 10 percent during the 1980s, 8 gained population during the 1990s and 6 had a loss of less than 3.0 percent. Only two (Atchison and Holt) had a decline of more than 10 percent.