The Nation - News from Dec. 30, 1987

Florida has supplanted Pennsylvania as the fourth most-populous state, ranking behind California, New York and Texas, the Census Bureau said. The agency, in its annual estimated update of state populations, said the South and the West continue to be growing the fastest, accounting for 15 million of the nation’s 17 million increase this decade. The bureau, part of the Commerce Department, put the overall estimated U.S. population as of July 1, 1987, at 243.4 million--up from nearly 241.1 million in mid-1986 and 226.5 million in the 1980 census.