It’s getting a bit more crowded around here.
The New York metropolitan area’s population is on the rise relative to upstate and the rest of the country, new Census Bureau data shows.
The state’s population grew by about 0.3 percent to 19.5 million in 2008, according to bureau estimates.
And the New York-New Jersey-Long Island metropolitan area, which includes bits of Connecticut and Pennsylvania, grew 0.4 percent, to 19 million, fueled by thriving immigrant communities and a rising birth rate, the bureau says.
The fastest gaining counties in the state included Staten Island, home to 487,407 people, up about 0.9 percent over 2007.
But New York’s upstate population continued its lengthy decline. Of the 53 counties north and west of Westchester and Rockland, 33 lost population, the bureau said.
Elsewhere in the country, growth is slowing in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tampa, regions hammered by frozen credit lines that make it harder for out-of-staters to move in.