Population Boom Boosts San Diego Area to No. 17 in Nation, Census Bureau Says

The San Diego metropolitan area has added more than half-a-million residents in the 1980s, representing one of the fastest growth rates nationwide, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.

The population boom has vaulted the city past Pittsburgh and Baltimore in the last year, making San Diego the 17th largest metropolitan area in the country, according to the Census Bureau’s annual estimates.

Overall, the population of San Diego and its suburbs rose 509,000 (27.3%) since the start of the decade, including an increase of 84,100 residents from 1987 to 1988. Among large metropolitan areas, only Phoenix, Dallas, and Atlanta grew faster, with the Phoenix population increasing by 34.5% since 1980, the most in the nation.

A San Diego Greater Chamber of Commerce official welcomed the news.

“It is a confirmation that San Diego is a rapidly growing area,” said Max Schetter, the chamber’s research director. “People are coming here because of the jobs and the things to do here, the opportunity, the strong economy.”

San Diego’s population has been growing at 4% annually, contrasted with 2% for California and 1% for the United States, Schetter said. Last year’s increase, the highest since 1950, was likely the largest ever in peacetime, he added.

But Schetter also cautioned that the boom is unlikely to continue because of inadequate road and sewer networks, and high housing prices. “I would be surprised if (growth) stayed at that rate much longer,” he said.

The annual survey examined 283 metropolitan areas, each an urban region with its own local economy, according to Census Bureau spokeswoman Cheryl Chambers. But Schetter complained that the Census Bureau’s count stopped at the international border, excluding Tijuana and its estimated 1.5 million residents from the San Diego metropolitan area.