PHOENIX – Maricopa County's population has grown to 3.7 million people, according to the first official population calculations in more than five years.
The figures released Monday by the Maricopa Association of Governments, which contracted with the U.S. Census Bureau to come up with the population figure, show the county has added 628,367 residents in that time, for an increase of 20.5 percent.
The numbers will be the basis in the next five years for the county, its cities and towns to receive their share of about $1.7 billion a year in taxes distributed by the state largely on the basis of population.
With nearly 155,000 new residents, Phoenix pushed to within 24,000 of the 1.5 million mark. Mesa, metropolitan Phoenix's second-largest city, grew by nearly 52,000 people to more than 448,000.
U of A president declines to sign shared governance contract with faculty
