When will Clark County reach 3 million residents?
Clark County is expected to hit 3 million residents in 2042, according to a new UNLV report.
The county’s population is expected to grow “steadily” in the near future, adding approximately 38,414 residents to its population in 2024 and continue growing at more than 1 percent per year up until 2039 when it will have 2.9 million residents, said Andrew Woods, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV.
The center on Wednesday released its annual 2024-2060 Population Forecasts report, which is prepared for various local government bodies and compiles estimates and a demographic outlook.
Woods said leisure and hospitality (which includes food and accommodations) will continue to drive job growth and employment numbers in the next 1o years, however added another industry has started to push its way to the top of the list in the valley.
“What is interesting is health care is going to be our No. 2 in terms of our largest driver of employment growth in the next 10 to 20 years,” he said. “So the second largest total jobs in the valley will be health care by 2028.”
The baby boomers aging into retirement will play a massive part in this, Woods said, and pointed out this is not only a local and national issue, but an international one. He said the valley clearly needs to start paying more attention to this burgeoning sector now to help prepare for the future.
“What makes me worried is the proportion of people working in health care here is far less than our peers like Phoenix or Salt Lake City or San Diego. So even though it’s going to be a large driver of our workforce, we should have more people working in the industry given the size of our population.”
Above national average for population growth
The report outlines Clark County’s population growth will continue to be above the national average for the foreseeable future. As of this year, according to the report, the county has 2.41 million residents.
“(Population) will grow steadily in the short term at rates of 1.6 and 1.4 percent in 2024 and 2025, respectively,” the report said. “The population growth rate will jump to 2 percent in 2026 and then will decline over the forecast period extending out to 2060.”
Clark County has grown faster than the national average, according to the report, for the past 50 years and is expected to continue to do so well into the future. But the gap will “narrow as Clark County is expected to age faster than the U.S. population due to lower birth rates and increasing ratio of retired migration to net migration over time.”
Woods said this year’s population projections have been revised upwards slightly from last year due to new data being integrated into the model, and the report states Clark County will have nearly 3.3 million residents by 2060.
The report estimates federal and private funding for transportation-infrastructure investments in Clark County will total approximately $12.8 billion between this year and 2050. Employment will be boosted over the next few years due to the construction of the Brightline high-speed rail project which is expected to be completed by the Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games in 2028 according to the Nevada Department of Transportation.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority projects approximately 1,109 hotel/motel rooms will be added to room inventory in 2025.
This includes the opening of AC Hotel by Marriott, Element Las Vegas, and Delta Hotels by Marriott and room additions by M Resort Spa & Casino, the report said.
U.S. Census Bureau statistics show that Mesquite was the fastest-growing city in the state by percentage growth, and that Carson City’s population dropped and North Las Vegas passed Reno to be the third largest municipality behind Las Vegas and Henderson.
Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.