Abilene has grown by 1 percent since 2000, according to 2010 Census numbers released Feb. 17.

“Personally, I was disappointed that the numbers weren’t higher,” Abilene Mayor Norm Archibald said. “I thought we would experience a higher growth.”

The city didn’t experience a lot of growth, but the racial and ethnic dynamic has shifted in the past 10 years. The black population gained 9.7 percent, Native Americans saw a 24.1 percent growth, Asians grew by 26.5 percent, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander registered a 37 percent growth and Hispanics reported a 27.1 percent growth. Whites and non-Hispanics both decreased by 2.4 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively.

“We’ve had a big increase here in other nationalities, including people who are here with refugee programs from Africa.” Archibald said. “We’ve had a big increase in the number of people from Asian descent. We have a lot of kids [in the school system] that have come from the Ukraine and from Africa and from different places. Even at ACU, y’all have a number of students that come there that have come from around the world to go to school there.”

The impact of the city’s census numbers reaches from the public school system and the Public Health Department to translator services and even the books on public library shelves.

“It gives us a whole new perspective on the population we live with, and so it’ll be a continued study by all of us,” Archibald said.

Archibald said the city of Abilene had a very strong group of people who worked on the Census and that they tried to find every person they could to be counted. Abilene’s population reached 117,063, an increase of 1,133 people since the last census data was gathered.

Dr. Caron Gentry, associate professor of political science, said she was involved in some early discussions on how Abilene could take the most successful census, conversations conducted by different focus groups of community members from categories like academic, church and nonprofit.

Although the city of Abilene saw a growth of 1 percent, Taylor County grew by almost 4 percent in the past 10 years.

“A lot of the growth in our area is not just in Abilene – it’s people that are building houses out in the country, and so a lot of the growth in the county is new homes being built, etc.,” Archibald said. “It’s not all inside the city limits but it’s around Abilene.”

Dr. Wayne Paris, associate professor of social work and director of master of science in social work, said in the 2000 census, college students living away from home for school were counted where they were living while in college, and students living with their parents while in school were counted at their parents’ homes.

In the 2010 census, dormitories and residence halls were considered “Group Quarters.” Census workers joined with residence hall staff members to distribute and collect the census reports.

POSSIBLE INFOGRAPHIC:

Black +9.7 percent

Native Americans +24.1 percent

Asian +26.5 percent growth

Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander +37 percent

Hispanics +27.1 percent growth

Whites -2.4 percent

Non-Hispanics  -5.3 percent