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|                                                                                          | **2010 Population Still Centered in Missouri**             An area near Plato, Missouri, is the new 2010 United States population center, sharing an honor previously known only to 22 other American communities. This is the fourth consecutive time that our country´s mean population center has been placed in Missouri.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |   | across America´s population canvas. The sweep reflects the settling of the frontier, waves of immigration, and the migration west and south. Since 1790, the location has moved in a westerly, then a more southerly pattern.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |   |
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| Move your cursor over the map to see the westward movement of population centers each decade. |
|                                                                                          | The center is in Texas County, approximately 2.7 miles from Plato, a rural community whose population totaled 109, according to Census 2010. This point is approximately 23.4 miles southwest of the 2000 center of population, which was 2.8 miles east of Edgar Springs in Phelps County.

Each decade, after it tabulates the decennial census, the Census Bureau calculates the center of population. The center is determined as the place where an imaginary, flat, weightless, and rigid map of the United States would balance perfectly if all 308,745,538 residents counted in the 2010 Census were of identical weight.      

The center of gravity for this imaginary map could also be called a mean (or average) center of population. 

**Historical Movement**    The center of population has followed a trail that reflects the sweep of the nation´s brush stroke |   | The new center of population is now about 873 miles from the first center in 1790, which was located in Kent County northwest of Chestertown, Maryland. 

**New Census Maps**The Census Bureau has released local level 2010 population data for the United States. In the coming weeks and months, the staff of the National Atlas will prepare many new maps from information contained in the latest census results. We will continue to offer historical data for comparison purposes while also preparing maps that illustrate our changing population.

Since 2000, the U.S. population increased by 9.7 percent. The South and Southwest accounted for 84.4 percent of this increase between 2000 and 2010. Not surprisingly, states in those regions were the fastest growing with Nevada leading the way with a population increase of over 35 percent. Michigan was the only state with a population that declined over the last ten years. The three fastest growing metropolitan areas were Palm Coast, Florida (92 percent), St. George, Utah (52.9 percent), and Las Vegas, Nevada (41.8 percent). |   |
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