The U.S. Census Bureau has just released a report on Coastline Population Trends in the United States: 1960 to 2008, [PDF] that examines population trends along the country’s coast. The report comes on the eve of the hurricane season, and at a time when the oil spill is impacting this coastline.
The findings show that over this time period there has been a 150 percent increase in population along the Gulf Coast, which is more than double the rate of increase for the nation’s population as a whole and far exceeds the population growth along the Pacific and Atlantic coast.
The report analyzes trends in the growth and decline, geographic distribution and density of the coastline population. It also incorporates historical data on the trajectories of hurricanes striking the U.S. coastlines to gauge the coastline population’s experience and vulnerability to hurricanes.
