The Charlotte region's growth during the 1990s was more staggering than anyone predicted, as a massive wave of out-of-staters and immigrants brought the world to the Queen City and its suburbs.

The seven-county Charlotte metro area, which extends into South Carolina, grew by 29 percent during the '90s, to just short of 1.5 million people, according to figures released Wednesday from the 2000 Census.

Mecklenburg County alone grew 36 percent, a gain of 184,021. That's about the population of Winston-Salem, North Carolina's fifth-largest city.

Overall, the once-a-decade count of the nation's population shows the Charlotte region - and North Carolina as a whole - becoming a far more suburban and increasingly diverse place.

All but one of the state's 10 fastest-growing counties were clustered around Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham or the beach. The lone oddball was Hoke County, in the central part of the state - a place filling with Northern retirees in large golf-course communities.

Yankees and newcomers from other Southern states account for the bulk of North Carolina's population boom. But minority groups make up a significant boomlet, as well.

The state's Hispanic population grew the fastest of any ethnic group, increasing by almost 400 percent. In Mecklenburg County, the number of Hispanics grew almost sevenfold, and the Asian population nearly tripled.

State and local politicians will use the census numbers to redraw voting districts, and state legislators will examine them to decide where to create a 13th District for the U.S. House.

But the figures also will be scrutinized by developers, school planners, retailers and anyone else whose business relies on knowing where people live.

S.C. numbers were released last week. They tell a similar story: The state grew 15.1 percent, with newcomers largely clustered along the beach, interstate highways and Charlotte's suburbs.

North Carolina picked up 1.4 million people, a 21.4 percent increase. The state now has more than 8 million residents.

Many of those newcomers flocked to the "urban crescent" along Interstates 40 and 85, in a 150-mile string from Charlotte to Greensboro to Raleigh.

As those urban areas attract a greater percentage of the population, the state's very character is changing. For much of its history, North Carolina was one of the most spread-out places in the country, with its people widely dispersed in small industrial towns and rural crossroads.

Not so today.

"The Mayberry model is diminishing," said Al Stuart, a UNC Charlotte geographer and co-editor of "The North Carolina Atlas: Portrait for a New Century."

"We're becoming so much more of an urban place," he said.

That's because in this once-poor, farm-dominated state, the major cities and their suburbs are where the jobs are, from Charlotte's uptown banking towers to the Research Triangle in the Raleigh area.

So that's where the people go.

But as they take jobs in the cities, many buy homes in the suburbs. Cow towns have become boom towns, as people embrace longer commutes and heavier traffic in return for bigger homes in brand-new subdivisions.

Consider Union County, which grew by 47 percent during the '90s, a gain of more than 39,000 people.

That's the fastest growth rate in the region, and No.4 in the state.

Linda Peccie and her husband, Richard, are among Union's newcomers. They moved from Charlotte seven years ago, drawn to a lifestyle that seemed more rural.

"We're rusticating, I guess, absolutely love it, until it's time to drive to Charlotte," she said.

While Charlotte remains the heart of the region, much of the city's growth occurred along its edges, in made-from-scratch communities such as Highland Creek and Ballantyne that didn't exist a decade ago.

Only through annexation has Charlotte kept pace with its suburbs. The city's population swelled by 37 percent, adding nearly 145,000 people during the last decade. But at the same time, the city expanded from 176 square miles in 1990 to 241 today.

Annexation also helped Mecklenburg's other towns maintain a staggering growth rate. Huntersville's population grew by more than 700 percent, and Cornelius, Davidson and Matthews were among the state's fastest-growing towns. The number of people in each grew by more than 50 percent during the '90s.

But as Mecklenburg County fills up, the scarcity of land makes homes more expensive, so many people moved across county lines, the Catawba River and even the state border looking for bigger houses in neighborhoods they could afford.

Cabarrus and Iredell counties, easily accessible to Charlotte by interstate, each grew 32 percent. And Lincoln County, where new homes squeeze along the shores of Lake Norman, swelled by 27 percent. York County, S.C., grew 25 percent.

Gaston County remained the metro area's slowpoke, growing 9 percent. But that's still more than twice as fast as predicted by previous state and census estimates.

Experts say at least two-thirds of the region's growth comes from out of state or abroad, with newcomers moving here for sunny weather and a hot job market.

It's a pattern repeated throughout North Carolina's cities. The Raleigh-Durham metro area grew 39 percent during the '90s.

And Johnston County, just southeast of Raleigh, was the state's fastest-growing county, swelling by 50 percent.

Federal data analyzed by The Observer last year shows that people move to North Carolina from all over the country, but the state has a particularly heavy influx of people from Northern states such as New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

It also draws heavily from its Southern neighbors, including Florida, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia.

Immigration from outside the country drove a huge increase in the state's Hispanic population, as well, from 76,726 in 1990 to 378,963 in 2000. Hispanics now make up almost 5 percent of the state's residents.

Mecklenburg County's Hispanic community grew from 6,693 to 44,871 people. The number of Asians in the county almost tripled.

And yet many community leaders say even those numbers seem low. They say many immigrants fear filling out census forms because they don't trust the government.

Outside of the metro areas, the state's other big population surge was along the coast. Three of the state's 10 fastest-growing counties hug the shoreline.

But some swaths of the state didn't share in the wealth. Five counties in the eastern coastal plain either stagnated or hemorrhaged people. Bertie County was the biggest loser, with a 3 percent loss.

Parts of the Charlotte area saw a drop in numbers, too. Several Gaston County towns, including Lowell, McAdenville and Spencer Mountain, lost people.

All are suffering from plant closings and the downturn of the textile industry, which have slowed Gaston's growth .

The Iredell hamlet of Love Valley (population: 30) holds the distinction of being the smallest place counted in the state. It lost more than half its population during the '90s.

"Republished with permission from The Charlotte Observer.  Copyright owned
by The Charlotte Observer."