Growth during the 1990s
The 1990 census counted 20,469 persons within the city limits of Bend. The population within the county portion of the urban areas was estimated to be 12,100 based on census tract data for the “Bend District,” for a total of 32,569 persons within the UGB in 1990.
During the 1990s, the rate of population growth in the City of Bend and Deschutes County was among the highest in the state. By the year 2000, the city population was 52,029 persons – up 31,560 persons since the 1990 census – although much of the city’s increase during this period was due to annexing all unincorporated areas in the UGB in 1999. The Portland State University Center for Population Research and Census estimated the annexed population to be 13,648 persons. Even accounting for the annexations, the population of Deschutes County excluding the City of Bend increased by 8,849 persons, from 54,489 to 63,338 persons, much of this growth occurring in the Cities of Redmond and Sisters. The total population of the county, including the City of Bend increased from 74,958 to 115,367 persons in the year 2000, which equates to an average annual growth rate of 4.4 percent per year. At the same time, the average annual growth rate for the State of Oregon was 1.9 percent per year.
Excluding the 13,648 persons annexed in to the City of Bend in 1999, and another 3,411 annexed between 1990 and 1998, the city’s population increased by 14,501 during the 1990s, which equates to an average annual growth rate of approximately six (6) percent per year.
The annual rate of growth in Bend during the 1990s was more than three times the statewide average. To put this increase in perspective, in the year 2000 one out of three Bend urban area residents did not live in the area in 1990. Table 4-1 below displays the results of the 1990 and 2000 Census counts for Deschutes County and how the population is distributed between the cities and the unincorporated county.
|
Jurisdiction |
April 1, 1990 Population |
Percent of Total |
April 1, 2000 Population |
Percent of Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Deschutes County |
74,958 |
100% |
115,367 |
100% |
|
Bend |
20,469 |
27% |
52,029 |
45% |
|
Redmond |
7,163 |
10% |
13,481 |
12% |
|
Sisters |
679 |
1% |
959 |
1% |
|
Total Pop in Cities |
28,311 |
38% |
66,469 |
58% |
|
Total Unincorporated |
46,647 |
62% |
48,898 |
42% |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau Summary Tape File 1 (1990) and Summary File 1 (2000).
The growth pressures in the 1990s affected not only Bend, but all of Central Oregon. Between 1990 and 2000 Deschutes County was the fastest growing county in the state, Jefferson County was third, and Crook County was fourth. Although the total Deschutes County population increased by more than 40,400 persons in ten years, the growth pattern in the 1990s was different than the previous boom in that most of the new residents settled in the urban areas.
One result of this population growth is that Bend was designated by the federal government as a metropolitan statistical area in June of 2003. An MSA is county that has a city with a population of 50,000 or more. The purpose of defining geographic areas like an MSA is to establish nationally consistent area definitions for collecting, tabulating, and publishing federal statistics. The Bend MSA represents Deschutes County.