Albuquerque's Environmental Story

While Albuquerque's population explosion has not matched those experienced by Los Angeles, Denver, and Phoenix, it, too, has grown rapidly since World War II. More growth and change have occurred from the fifties through the eighties than in the previous hundreds of years of the city's history. Its area mushroomed, and its population increased tenfold. Predictions for the future at one point suggested its population might reach nearly three-fourths of a million by the turn of the century. But that is not happening. The rate of growth fell off between the eighties and nineties. In-migration slowed from 51,790 people a year in 1980 to 5,605 in 1990. Increase in population was due more to change in the birth-death ratio than to the arrival of new residents from other parts of the country. At the present rate of growth the city's population in 2000 is predicted to be 442,300.

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