For release: July 19, 2001
Contact: Charles B. Henderson, (314) 444-8311

2000 Census: The Changing Face of the Fed's Eighth District

ST. LOUIS -- Based on the 2000 census, the population in the Federal Reserve's Eighth District grew slower than did that of the rest of the nation over the past decade. That could translate into a slower potential growth rate for the region's labor force, which ultimately could mean a relatively slower rate of economic growth, says an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The economist is Adam M. Zaretsky, who studied the numbers from the 2000 census for the July issue of The Regional Economist, the St. Louis Fed's quarterly journal of business and economic issues.

The 2000 census shows that the District's population was 13,455,055, up by 7.5 percent since 1990. By the comparison, the nation's population grew by just over 13 percent during the same period.

Zaretsky emphasized that his examination included only those portions of the states that lie within the District itself: all of Arkansas, southern Illinois, southern Indiana, western Kentucky, northern Mississippi, eastern Missouri and western Tennessee. "Some of the major population centers in these states-- Chicago, Indianapolis, Kansas City and

Nashville, for example-- fall outside the boundaries of the District," he said. "If we included these metro areas in the data, it would skew the analysis."

In 2000, Missouri was the District state with the largest population, as it was in 1990. Following the Show-Me State were Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee. "Not surprisingly," said Zaretsky, "these four states are the ones that contain the largest cities in the District: St. Louis, Little Rock, Louisville and Memphis."

States in the southern part of the District (Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee) exhibited the strongest population growth--more than 10 percent over the decade. Illinois and Missouri, on the other hand, exhibited the District's slowest population growth, at less than 2.5 percent each.

The District's four major metropolitan areas (St. Louis, Louisville, Little Rock and Memphis) continue to be the driving forces of the region's economy. The District's southern cities Little Rock and Memphis-- grew faster than their northern counterparts-- Louisville and St. Louis. During the past decade, Little Rock posted the fastest growth of the four, increasing its total population by 13.8 percent, while Memphis' population grew by 12.7 percent. Louisville's 8.1 percent growth and St. Louis' 4.5 percent growth were significantly lower.

"By and large, the nation's metro areas that have experienced the fastest population growth are in the Southeast, the Southwest and the West," said Zaretsky.

The District's total population has a somewhat greater percentage of whites and African-Americans than does the nation's population as a whole. In the District, 80.3 percent of the population is white, while the nation's share is just over 75 percent. The District's African-American population accounts for 16.5 percent of its total. "Almost 97 percent of District residents are either white or African-American," said Zaretsky, "a figure that is about 10 percentage points higher than the national number."

In addition, Zaretsky said that Illinois and Missouri experienced declines in shares of their population that are white. Nevertheless, white residents comprised at least 80 percent of all the District states' populations, except in Mississippi and Tennessee. In those two states, the share of the population that is white is less than 60 percent. Mississippi and Tennessee also have the largest shares of African-American residents--slightly less than 40 percent each. Shares of African-American residents in other District states varies, from 3 percent in Indiana to almost 16 percent in Arkansas.

As in the rest of the country, the fastest growing segments of the District's population are those groups that represent the smallest shares of total population: Asians, native Hawaiians and Pacific islanders, and American Indians and Alaskan natives. "Although combined they currently comprise less than 5 percent of the population in each District state, these groups in many instances nearly doubled in size in the last decade," said Zaretsky.

Subscriptions to The Regional Economist are free and can be obtained by calling (314) 444-8809.

With branches in Little Rock, Louisville and Memphis, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis serves the Eighth Federal Reserve District, which includes all of Arkansas, eastern Missouri, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, western Tennessee and northern Mississippi. In addition to serving as a bank for depository institutions and the U.S. government, each Reserve Bank monitors economic conditions in the District, participates in formulating monetary policy, and supervises state-chartered member banks and bank holding companies to foster safety and soundness of the District's banking and financial institutions and to protect the credit rights of consumers.

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