Suburban areas continue to grow

Suburban Indianapolis, led by Hamilton County, is still the fastest-growing area of Indiana, while urban counties show continued growth, and some rural counties have seen their populations shrink, according to 2002 census estimates released Thursday.\n"The one trend that jumps out at me, and it's just a continuation of the 1990s, is strong suburban growth, primarily around Indianapolis," said John Besl, a demographer with the Indiana Business Research Center.\nMany people move to the suburbs because they want more space, he said.\n"I guess that's the motivation," Besl said. "But looking at these numbers, it seems like the suburbs have to be pretty crowded."\nThe state's five fastest-growing counties were all around Indianapolis. The fastest-growing county, just as it was in the 1990s, was Hamilton County, just north of Indianapolis. It grew 68 percent from 1990 to 2000, and grew another 5.3 percent from 2001 to 2002.\nThe county had an estimated population of 205,610 last year.\nMeredith Carter, president of the Hamilton County Council, sees no slowdown in sight.\n"Not yet," he said. "I think in the northern part there is still a lot of farmland."\nCarter has served on the council for 20 years. He remembers worrying about the upkeep of dirt roads when he started on the council. Now he worries about making sure the county has adequate roads, sewers and police and fire protection.\nThose are the kinds of problems other counties in suburban Indianapolis are facing. Hendricks County, west of the city, is the next fastest-growing county at 4.2 percent, followed by Hancock County at 2.8 percent, Boone County at 2.6 percent and Johnson County at 2.5 percent.\nOwen County, between Bloomington and Terre Haute, and Ohio County, northwest of Cincinnati, were next at 1.9 percent growth. Ripley County, also northwest of Cincinnati, was next at 1.7 percent growth, followed by Warren County, west of Lafayette.\nWhile some suburban counties were growing fast, urban counties did not keep pace. Indiana's four most populous counties all showed sluggish growth last year. The estimated population of Marion County, which includes Indianapolis, dropped to 863,429 last year from 863,787 a year earlier. Lake County, which includes Gary, grew by 1,323 people, or 0.3 percent, to 487,016.