PORTLAND (AP) – Maine’s population, one of the nation’s oldest, got even older between 2000 and 2002 and it was exacerbated by one of the nation’s largest drops in the number of children under 5.

The number of children under 5 declined 3.9 percent, while the number of residents older than 65 grew 1.4 percent, as Maine kept its ranking as third-oldest state, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Thursday,

Only Florida and West Virginia had an older average age than Maine, whose average grew from 38.8 to 39.4 during the period.

Neena Quirion of the Maine Council of Senior Citizens said the graying of Maine is expected given the decline of the manufacturing sector and outward migration of younger Mainers seeking good-paying jobs.

“Our young people have had to flee the state to find job opportunities,” Quirion said. “That’s a story you hear all the time.”

It didn’t help that the number of children under 5 dropped so much. It was the second-biggest drop in the nation, behind West Virginia.

That was in part a reflection of low birth rates in Maine and across the nation. America’s birth rate fell to a record low last year of 13.9 per 1,000 people.

Overall, the census estimates indicate Maine’s population grew 1.3 percent, or about 17,180 people, for a total of 1.29 million people.

New Hampshire had New England’s fastest growth rate at 3 percent, followed by Rhode Island’s 1.8 and Connecticut’s 1.4 percent. Maine was fourth, followed by Vermont (1.1 percent) and Massachusetts (1 percent).

The population shifts have been underscored by lawmakers’s efforts to lower prescription drug rates for seniors and worries about low Medicare reimbursement rates for the state’s hospitals, said Jon Reisman, professor of economics and public policy at the University of Maine at Machias.

Also, schools across the state are bracing for a dropoff in the number incoming students in the coming years, Reisman said.

The Census estimates also show that black, Hispanic and Asian populations grew faster than that of white residents in Maine.

The state’s Asian population grew 13.3 percent, the Hispanic population 9.4 percent and the black population 9.1 percent during the period. The number of people identifying themselves as white grew 1.1 percent.

Despite the gains, Maine’s minority populations remain proportionately the smallest in the country. Overall, Maine is 96.4 percent white.

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On the Net:

http://www.census.gov

AP-ES-09-18-03 1930EDT

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