A. Population Patterns
According to the 2000 national census, Idaho ranked 39th among the states in population, with a total of 1,293,953. This represented an increase of 28.5 percent over the 1990 population of 1,006,749.
Idaho is among the most sparsely populated states in the nation, with an average density in 2003 of 6 persons per sq km (17 per sq mi). The population is very unevenly distributed. Most people live in the rich farmland areas of the Snake River valley in southern Idaho and in the western half of the Panhandle around the cities of Coeur d’Alene, Moscow, and Lewiston. Large sections of the mountainous areas in central and northern Idaho are practically uninhabited. Some 66 percent of the people live in urban areas; the rest live on farms or in the mountainous countryside.
Whites comprise the largest share of the population, with 91 percent of the people. Native Americans are 1.4 percent of the population, Asians are 0.9 percent, blacks are 0.4 percent, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders are 0.1 percent, and those of mixed heritage or not reporting race are 6.2 percent. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 7.9 percent of the people. The Native Americans in Idaho belong mainly to the Nez Perce and Shoshone peoples. The largest reservation is the Fort Hall Reservation near Pocatello, and there are many other reservations in the state. The leasing of reservation lands to farmers is a source of income for some tribes.
The Basques, one of the most distinctive cultural and ethnic groups in Idaho, live mainly in the Boise area. They are the descendants of immigrants, many of them shepherds, from the Basque Country in northern Spain. Many of the Basques in Idaho have retained their distinctive customs, and each year they hold folk festivals in Boise.
B. Principal Cities
Idaho’s four largest cities are Boise, Nampa, Pocatello, and Idaho Falls. Boise, the state capital, had a population of 189,847 in 2002. The Boise metropolitan area, which includes Ada and Canyon counties, had a population of 432,345 (2000). Also included in the metropolitan region is Nampa, with a population of 60,259. A one-time trading post for miners, Boise now serves as the chief commercial, manufacturing, and cultural center of southwestern Idaho. It is also one of the principal cities of the interior Pacific Northwest. Pocatello had a population of 51,242 in 2002. Pocatello is an important transportation and industrial center. Idaho Falls, which had a population of 51,096, is the major city of the upper Snake River valley. Also in the valley is Twin Falls (35,633), the center of a prosperous farm region.
The largest city in northern Idaho is Coeur d’Alene, with a population of 36,259; it is a center for tourism and commerce in the Panhandle. Lewiston (30,487), which was a mining camp during the gold rush and, for a time, the capital of Idaho Territory, is a manufacturing center and also Idaho’s major river port. Moscow (21,674) is the home of the University of Idaho. |
