Morris Digital Works Wire Service

Not much changed in Topeka and Shawnee County in the past 10 years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Both the city and county grew a little in population, but not much. The city grew by 2 percent, while the county grew by 5.5 percent.

That means Shawnee County is a little more rural and suburban than 10 years ago, but not much. The percentage of Shawnee County residents living inside the city limits of Topeka shrank from 74 percent in 1990 to 72 percent last year.

The main cause of that is the lack of growth within city boundaries.

Whereas in the past, the city had expanded its boundaries -- by as much as 200 percent between 1950 and 1960 -- in the last decade of the 20th century, the city grew by less than one square mile -- a 1.5 percent increase over the 55 square miles the city covered in 1990.

Shawnee County also saw its ethnic and racial minorities grow during the past decade, but not as dramatically as in many other parts of the country.

Individually, most of the racial and ethnic groups grew at a faster rate than the white population: blacks by 15 percent; Native Americans by 8 percent; Asians by 37 percent and Hispanics by 42 percent.

But because they began the decade with small numbers, the big percentage increases didn't have a big impact on the city's diversity.

Blacks now represent 9 percent of the county's population, compared with 8 percent in 1990. Native Americans and Asians still represent about 1 percent of the population, as they did 10 years ago.

Hispanics represented 5 percent of the population in 1990 but grew to 6.5 percent of the 2000 population.

One big difference in the statistics is the aging of the city's population. In 1990, children younger than 18 represented 26 percent of the population. That appears to have dropped to 19 percent in 2000.

The statistics indicate the number of children younger than 18 dropped to 32,593 in 2000, compared with 41,693 in 1990.

Comparisons by race, ethnicity and age were difficult because of changes in the way the numbers were reported by the Census Bureau this year.

In 1990, people were asked to designate whether they were white, black, Indian, Asian or "other." They also were asked to indicate whether they were of Hispanic ethnicity, in addition to belonging to one of the racial groups.

In 2000, the Census Bureau allowed people to indicate multiple races in their heritage, in addition to indicating whether they considered themselves Hispanic.

In 2000, the racial group "Hawaiian or Pacific Islander" was added to the other listings. Sixty-one people in Topeka indicated they are at least partly Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.

City-county population shifts

Population moved from the county to Topeka until the 1960s, when the tide began to move in the opposite direction.

Year	Topeka	percent	Balance of County	percent	Total County
1860	759	22%	2,754	78%	3,513
1870	5,790	44%	7,331	56%	13,121
1880	15,452	53%	13,641	47%	29,093
1890	31,007	63%	18,165	37%	49,172
1900	33,608	63%	20,119	37%	53,727
1910	43,684	71%	18,190	29%	61,874
1920	50,022	72%	19,137	28%	69,159
1930	64,120	75%	21,080	25%	85,200
1940	67,833	74%	23,414	26%	91,247
1950	78,791	75%	26,627	25%	105,418
1960	119,484	85%	21,802	15%	141,286
1970	125,011	80%	30,311	20%	155,322
1980	115,266	74%	39,650	26%	154,916
1990	119,883	74%	41,093	26%	160,976
2000	122,377	72%	47,494	28%	169,871

Editor's note: For more census statistics, click here.