Population trends are continuing to make the Empire State less of an empire, new Census Bureau information shows.
The number of New Yorkers grew by an anemic 0.08 percent this year, to 19,297,729 as of July 1, the Census said yesterday.
That’s less than one-tenth the national growth rate. On New Year’s Day the nation’s population is expected to reach 303,146,284, an increase of 0.9 percent over the last year, the Census says.
New York is also faring worse than its Northeast neighbors, which had an annual growth rate of 0.17 percent.
The figures mean New York will likely lose one seat in Congress in the reapportionment following the 2010 Census, according to Election Data Services.
Blame upstate’s lagging economy on New York’s slow-grow population trend, experts say.
The number of jobs upstate declined by 0.6 percent between 2000 and 2006, according to the Public Policy Institute of New York State.
New York City officials say the population of the five boroughs was up 3 percent between 2000 and 2006, about twice the state’s 1.6 percent growth rate in the same period.