99 years of economic insights for Indiana

The IBR is a publication of the Indiana Business Research Center at IU's Kelley School of Business.

Executive Editor, Carol O. Rogers
Managing Editor, Brittany L. Hotchkiss

From the Editor

Executive Editor, Indiana Business Research Center, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University

It’s already two years since the last census, which means people are already asking for more current population data for their communities. In fact, many businesses, schools, government agencies and nonprofits want to know what their populations are going to be much further out in the future. Such information is critical to capital projects, long-range planning efforts, business expansion plans and planning for opening new schools or closing old ones.  

The IBRC continues its twice-each-decade production of Indiana's official population projections—an effort now in its sixth decade. In this issue, readers are receiving the first look at Indiana's county projections based on the 2010 census results. Between 2010 and 2050, Indiana's population will continue to grow to nearly 7.5 million. Most of that growth will result from a surfeit of births over deaths and continued in-migration. And our population is getting older thanks to the aging baby boom generation moving into its retirement years.

For the curious (since we've been doing this for a long time), here's a look at what we projected for 2010 (in our 2007 series):

  • Projection for the year 2010: 6,427,236
  • The actual 2010 Census count: 6,483,802

My math tells me we were off by less than 1 percent—not bad!