200,000 -- Coming Soon

Las Cruces and Doña Ana County continue explosive growth. US Census Bureau estimates just released for 2006 put the number of people in the county as of July 1, 2006 at approximately 194,000.

This reflects a 2.4% growth for the year, the second highest for the state.

The effects of this growth are everywhere: new housing, new subdivisions, new roads -- more traffic -- commercial development, real estate price increases, multiplying resource demands.

A lot of the effects of growth are cultural. There is a clear clash between the traditional -- one could say organic -- ideas and values of this area and the ideas and values being imported. There is a distinct "California mindset" that is almost brutally in conflict with local culture.

Here are the population estimates in thousands for the last five years for Doña Ana County:

2002 - 179,000
2003 - 182,000
2004 - 185,000
2005 - 189,000
2006 - 194,000

In 1990, the population was 136,000.

Here's the fact sheet for Doña Ana for 2005, the latest posted on the Census Bureau site. Among other things, it shows the medium age to be 31.7 years, the median family income to be $34,168, and the average time required to get to work as 17.3 minutes.

Tags: Las Cruces, Real Estate, Population, Average Income