TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Bakersfield’s population, by sheer number, grew more than any other city in California between 2000 and 2010, according to new data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

With 100,426 more residents, Bakersfield — now the state’s ninth largest city with a population of 347,483 as of April 1, 2010 — added more bodies than even Los Angeles, which ranked second in numeric growth and counted 97,801 more people than it did in the last census.

Bakersfield’s nearly 41 percent growth spurt hurtled it to the No. 9 spot a couple years earlier than local officials expected based on state estimates, said City Manager Alan Tandy. The city had been California’s 12th largest after the 2000 census.

Ranking in the Top 10 brings something other than bragging rights, he said.
“The 10 largest cities are occasionally called to meetings on major legislative issues with the governor or the ‘Big Five’ — that would be a good thing!” he wrote in an e-mail.

Hispanics now outnumber non-Hispanic whites in Bakersfield, the data show. More than 45 percent of the city’s population was Hispanic in the latest count, the numbers show, compared to 32.5 percent in 2000.

The percentage of non-Hispanic white residents fell to less than 38 percent in 2010, with a count of 131,311.

Kern County’s population, meanwhile, grew nearly 27 percent to 839,631 — the third-highest county growth rate, by percentage, in California.

Kern’s 177,986 new residents made it the 11th most populous among California’s 58 counties, up from No. 14 a decade earlier.

Allan Krauter, the county’s legislative analyst, had been expecting the population to reach about 860,000 based on state projections.

County computer geeks are now imposing the new numbers on existing maps to see which supervisorial districts have too many or too few residents, he said. New boundaries will be drawn this spring to even out the five districts.

Census data is collected every 10 years so political boundaries can be redrawn for the  U.S. House of Representatives. States, counties, cities and other jurisdictions also use the numbers to update local districts.

Peter W. Smith, a senior planner with the Kern Council of Governments, said the data will be used for more than redrawing political lines.

It helps Kern COG and others craft the regional transportation grid, for one. Planning for everything from bus routes to new streets to intersections and traffic signals is based on knowing where the population is located, he said.

The Kern High School District has been waiting until the census numbers were released to set up a committee that will organize a switch from a system of at-large trustees — those elected from anywhere in the district — to one where trustees are elected from specified areas, said John Teves, district spokesman.

“We will be using census data to tell us how to do that,” Teves said.

The district doesn’t rely heavily on census data when planning for new schools, Teves added. For that, it looks to enrollment changes in elementary and middle schools in its feeder districts.

Tuesday’s numbers included information on housing.

Bakersfield’s total housing units grew by nearly 37 percent over the decade to 120,725, up from 88,262, according to census numbers posted by the state Department of Finance. The number of vacant units in the city nearly doubled, with some 9,593 — nearly 8 percent — standing empty in the 2010 count.

The new populations of other cities in Kern included:

• Arvin: 19,304, up 49 percent from 2000

• California City: 14,120, up 68.4 percent

• Delano: 53,041, up 34.3 percent

• McFarland: 12,707, up 29.2 percent

• Maricopa: 1,154, up 3.9 percent

• Ridgecrest: 27,616, up 10.8 percent

• Shafter: 16,988, up 33.4 percent

• Taft: 9,327, up 5.9 percent

• Tehachapi: 14,414, up 29.6 percent

• Wasco: 25,545, up 20.1 percent

Statewide, Los Angeles remained California’s largest city with 3,792,621 residents. San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco and Fresno completed the Top 5, with Fresno bumping Long Beach from the No. 5 spot.

Los Angeles County, with more than 9.8 million residents, held the top slot again, followed by San Diego, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

California’s population of 37,253,956, up 10 percent since 2000, was released earlier. Inland parts of the state bore the strongest growth, with only three small counties in Northern California losing residents.