New Hampshire Population Up 11.4% in Decade, Census Finds

People attracted by high-tech jobs, affordable real estate and a rural lifestyle helped produce a surge of growth in southern and coastal New Hampshire during the 1990s, census figures released Friday show.

Paul Hamblett, a Portsmouth Realtor, said new arrivals are flocking to big, new houses in the country. Many are middle-age professionals with children.

“They want four bedrooms and a two- or three-car garage in the $500,000 to $700,000 range,” he said.

Overall, the state’s population grew 11.4% during the 1990s to 1.2 million, making it the fastest-growing Eastern state north of Delaware.

Polly Culver, 32, and her husband, Tom, moved to Merrimack last year from a Philadelphia suburb. The Culvers have two young children and were tired of long commutes and suburban living.

“We decided we were willing to make changes in our career priorities to get a better quality of life,” Polly Culver said. “New Hampshire and Vermont were top on our list.”

More job opportunities in New Hampshire decided the issue. She works at PC Connection, a mail-order computer and software seller three miles from her house. Tom, an optical engineer, works out of their home.

“I’m an hour from a big city, an hour from the ocean and an hour from the mountains,” she said. “And I love the fact that I’m three miles from home.”

The numbers also showed the state is becoming more diverse: Since 1990, the Latino population has grown by 81%, Asians and Pacific Islanders by 74% and blacks by 26%.

The state remains 96% white.

Every county grew except for far northern Coos County, where the population dropped 5%.