An influx of Californians helped make the Idaho Panhandle the fastest-growing region in that state in the 1990s, says Kathryn Tacke, labor market analyst with the Idaho Department of Labors Coeur dAlene office.


Kootenai County, which added 48 percent more population in the 90s, was the prime engine of growth in the Panhandle, an area that also includes Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, and Shoshone counties, she says.


In contrast, Spokane Countys population, although much larger to begin with, grew just 15 percent in the last decade, according to Washington state figures.


The five-county Idaho Panhandle grew faster in percentage terms than the Treasure Valley, a 10-county region that includes the Boise metropolitan area and which has been an Idaho growth hot spot. The Treasure Valleys population advanced by 34 percent in the 90s.


Most of the Panhandles population growth stemmed from people choosing to move to communities like ours that appear to be safer (places) to raise children, that offer lots of recreational and amusement opportunities, and have beautiful scenery, Tacke says.


At the end of 1999, some 173,600 people lived in the Idaho Panhandle, up 36 percent from the areas 1990 population of 127,400 people, Tacke says.


Growth was especially strong in the Panhandle in the four years from 1991 to 1995when total population grew by 19 percent, or more than half of the decade-long gain. Tacke believes that surge was fueled by Californians who were fleeing their home states faltering economy, crime, and congestion.


Of course, they moved all over the Pacific Northwest, but we saw an especially large percentage of these folks, she says.


Population growth slowed in the latter half of the decade, but still gained 10.3 percent. Even at that rate, the Panhandles growth outstripped the population growth rates of both Idaho as a whole and the nation in that period, she says.


In percentage terms, the Panhandles population grew almost as fast in the 1990s as it did in the legendary 1970sgrowing an average of 3.5 percent a year in the 1990s, compared with 3.7 percent a year in the 1970s, Tacke wrote in a recent analysis. In absolute terms, it added more population in the 1990s than in the 1970s.


Tacke says that the Panhandle experienced population growth in the 70s because the areas natural-resource-based economy still was robust, and many urban Americans had tired of city life and were relocating to more rural communities.


All of the Panhandle counties except one, Shoshone, experienced population growth in the 1990s. Shoshone County, which was hit hard by mining-industry job losses in the last decade and also in the 80s, lost an average of 31 people a year in the 90s, Tacke says. Bonner Countys population grew by 35 percent, while Boundary County grew 19 percent, and Benewah Countys population gained 14 percent.


The population figures Tacke uses are subject to change once the 2000 U.S. Census figures are tabulated, she says.


Based on her observations and other data she collects, however, it appears the Panhandle still is growing at a pretty strong clip, she says. Were not growing as rapidly as we were in the early 90s, but a number of people are choosing to retire here, and we have less of a brain drain than we had throughout most of the last century.