Ecosystem Targets and Supporting Indicators
Watershed Population
This indicator uses US Census data to track the population living within the Long Island Sound watershed.
View Implementation Actions for Watershed Population| Long Island Sound Watershed Population by State | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CT | NY | MA | NH | VT | RI | |
| 1800 | 251,030 | 41,200 | 136,920 | 49,550 | 79,600 | 9,170 |
| 1850 | 370,800 | 187,200 | 232,870 | 75,920 | 123,100 | 10,770 |
| 1900 | 908,400 | 772,400 | 544,800 | 87,060 | 110,600 | 18,890 |
| 1950 | 2,007,300 | 2,833,180 | 914,410 | 110,800 | 117,000 | 39,190 |
| 1970 | 3,032,220 | 3,603,610 | 1,088,220 | 126,060 | 123,040 | 64,160 |
| 1980 | 3,107,560 | 3,240,140 | 1,092,670 | 145,890 | 142,800 | 70,240 |
| 2000 | 3,405,570 | 3,631,250 | 1,170,210 | 166,800 | 165,400 | 87,060 |
| 2010 | 3,574,097 | 3,723,619 | 1,203,754 | 176,664 | 167,021 | 88,939 |
| 2020 | 3,605,944 | 3,709,518 | 1,059,497 | 225,284 | 202,522 | 137,544 |
| Total Long Island Sound Watershed Population | |
|---|---|
| 1800 | 567,470 |
| 1850 | 1,000,660 |
| 1900 | 2,442,150 |
| 1950 | 6,021,880 |
| 1970 | 8,037,310 |
| 1980 | 7,799,300 |
| 2000 | 8,626,290 |
| 2010 | 8,934,094 |
| 2020 | 8,940,309 |
WHAT IS A WATERSHED?
The watershed is all of the land that drains into Long Island Sound itself or bodies of water that connect to the Sound. The watershed of Long Island Sound includes land from six states and extends north up to the border with Canada. The total area of the LIS watershed in Connecticut is 3,296,015 acres, which includes nearly the entire state. The total area of the LIS watershed in New York is 306,052 acres and is situated primarily along the coast in Long Island, Queens, the Bronx, and Westchester.
WHAT DOES THIS INDICATE?
This indicator provides population information for the total watershed plus state-level data for the parts of each state within the watershed.
STATUS
About 8.93 million people live in the watershed, according to the 2010 US Census, an increase of 3.5 percent from 2000. The increase is slightly higher than the 3.2 percent growth for the entire Northeast. From 2000 to 2010, regional growth was much faster for the South and West (14.3 and 13.8 percent, respectively) than for the Midwest (3.9 percent) and Northeast (3.2 percent). About half of the watershed population lives near the coast in New York and Connecticut, according to an analysis done for a public perception survey of Long Island Sound in 2006.
DATA NOTES
Compiled by M.A. Parker, CT DEEP, from population data estimates maintained by the US Census Bureau, the University of Virginia Library with the cooperation and consent of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, and New York census 2000 town/city data from the Empire State Development – DataCenter.
