Population trends on the Colorado Plateau

Source:  1996. Hecox, Walter E. with Bradley L. Ack. Charting the Colorado Plateau : An Economic and Demographic Exploration, Grand Canyon Trust, Flagstaff, AZ.

A major trend affecting land use, and in turn land cover, on the Colorado Plateau is the region's growing population. With more and more people demanding a number of different uses from the plateau's landscape, conflicts continue to arise as the area's natural resources come under pressure from a variety of users. Population on the plateau has increased six-fold since the turn of the century and has more than doubled since the mid-1960s. This growth rate is two-and-a-half times greater than the nation’s rate of 39% for that same period. Population growth on the plateau is now outpacing growth in the western U.S. as a whole as people fleeing the urbanization of the Pacific Coast move into the intermountain west. From 1990 to 1994 alone, the population of the plateau increased 13 percent (see figure below).

Figure from hecox and Ack, 1996, p. 25

The fastest growing areas on the Colorado Plateau are San Miguel County in Colorado and Washington County in Utah. The town of St. George, Utah, in Washington County just southwest of Zion National Park, saw its population rise from 11,350 people in 1980 to 28,502 people in 1990, an increase of 151% in just 10 years.

References:

Hecox, W. and Ack, B. 1996. Charting the Colorado Plateau: An Economic and Demographic Exploration. Grand Canyon Trust, Flagstaff, AZ, 50 pp.

Reisner, M. 1993. Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water. Second Edition. Penguin Books, New York, NY.

Worster, D. 1985. Rivers of empire: water, aridity and growth of the American west. Second Edition. Pantheon Books, New York, NY, 416 pp.

Special Essay:

The Grand Plan. As the urban population of the Southwest burgeoned during the twentieth century, the Colorado Plateau became the ultimate resource for the water, mineral and energy needs of the region. The land-use impacts on the Plateau are explored by activist and photographer Ray Wheeler.