Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 29, 1993                   TAG: 9312290047
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated PRess
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CALIF. GROWTH NOW SLOWER THAN U.S.

Altogether, there were 257,908,000 Americans on July 1, 2.8 million more than a year earlier. That's a 1.1 percent increase.

Nearly one-third of the growth, 894,000 people, was the result of migration from other countries. Births accounted for the rest.

California's population grew by 1 percent, to 31.2 million. Immigrants from abroad accounted for 95 percent of the state's growth.

During the 1980s, California grew twice as fast as the nation.

In recent years California's huge aerospace industry has shrunk dramatically as the military cut its purchasing at the end of the Cold War.

Many Californians were migrating to nearby states such as Washington, Oregon and Arizona, said Peter Morrison, a demographer with the Rand Corp., a Santa Monica, Calif., research institute.

Nationally, Nevada was the fastest growing state, at 3.9 percent, followed by Idaho, 3.1 percent, and Colorado, 2.9 percent.

Virginia grew a bit faster than the nation as a whole, at 1.5 percent. There are now almost 6.5 million Virginians

Two states, Connecticut and Rhode Island, lost population, by 0.1 percent each. The District of Columbia also saw a population decline, of 1.2 percent.