Pocatello has been discovered and is developing rapidly, resulting in some unavoidable growing pains.

At least that’s been the popular narrative among businessmen, philanthropists, Realtors, political leaders and others who have tried to make sense of emerging challenges, victories and trends in the Gate City lately.

New data from the 2020 U.S. census, however, seems to tell a different story: Over the course of the past decade, Pocatello grew by a meager 3.8 percent.

The census placed Pocatello’s population as of April 1, 2020, at 56,320, compared with 54,255 a decade earlier. Pocatello fell one place in the census rankings from being the state’s fifth largest city in 2010 to its sixth largest city in 2020.

By contrast, several other Idaho cities posted whopping gains in the census. Rexburg grew by 54.6 percent, from a population of 25,484 to 39,409. Star grew by nearly 92 percent, from 5,793 to 11,117. Middleton gained 70.6 percent more people, reaching a population of 9,425. Meridian ballooned from 75,092 to 117,635, representing a 56.7 percent gain. Kuna’s population increased by about 58 percent, from 15,210 to 24,011. Idaho Falls grew by 14.1 percent, from 56,813 to 64,818. The state’s largest city, Boise, grew by 14.6 percent to 234,684.

Many of the state’s rural communities lost residents. Downey shrank by 8.6 percent, from 625 to 571. Rockland lost 18 percent of its population, down from 295 people to 242 people. Inkom lost 7.3 percent of its residents, from 854 to 792.

Pocatello’s growth rate was topped by its bedroom community, Chubbuck, which added 11.8 percent to its population, reaching 15,570 people. Blackfoot equaled Pocatello’s 3.8 percent growth rate, reaching a population of 12,346.

In Pocatello at least, the real estate market, which has refused to cool off, and skyrocketing residential property values don’t seem to align with the findings of the census.

Brent Richardson, president of the Greater Pocatello Association of Realtors, said the inventory of homes on the market in the Pocatello and Chubbuck area has been historically tight in recent months. Rentals have also become extremely hard to find.

Richardson is convinced that Pocatello, with its close proximity to surrounding mountains, is attracting people from big urban areas who are tired of traffic and high taxes and like the outdoors.

“We’re still growing quite a lot as far as people moving in. Our inventory is still at an all-time low,” Richardson said.

Andy Moldenhauer, president of the Pocatello firefighters union, looks at all of the new construction taking place throughout the community and wonders how the city’s growth rate could be so paltry. He also notes his department’s requests for service are up. Some of those calls could be the result of residents experiencing “cabin fever” and getting out more following COVID-19 lock-downs, he said. But he believes another factor driving up the workload is simply that there are far more people living here now.

“We presented to the City Council the other day and our chief made the statement that July was our busiest month. We had more calls in July than we ever have,” Moldenhauer said. “Right now we’re on track to have our busiest year ever.”

Pocatello City Council member Linda Leeuwrik headed the Bannock County Complete Count Committee, which sought to bolster local participation in the census. The census is used as the basis for determining political representation and many funding decisions.

She said the community’s roughly 72 percent response rate was up by a couple of percentage points from a decade ago.

COVID-19 dealt the committee a blow, preventing them from promoting census participation at several large events that were canceled.

“To have improved at all given the COVID situation I think was amazing,” Leeuwrik said. “It speaks to the good planning we did.”

Leeuwrik said her committee created targeted commercials and messages for Idaho State University students, explaining they live on campus for about nine months per year and should therefore claim their campus community as home.

But Leeuwrik also acknowledges Pocatello’s growth on the census was much smaller than she anticipated. She said she’ll have to study the data to understand it better.

“I’m not sure if the numbers totally reflect where they should be,” Leeuwrik said.