The population of Kootenai County grew by more than 12,000 in just two years, according to estimates recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Kootenai County is estimated to have had a population of 183,578 on July 1, 2022. That's a 7% hike from the April 1, 2020, census number of 171,362.

About 5% of that growth in the county occurred in the time between April 2020 to July 2021, and the remaining 2% followed in 2022, indicating some of the population surges in Kootenai County are slowing down and balancing out.

The cities with the largest percentage of estimated growth were Post Falls and Rathdrum, when each grew by 10% from 2020 to 2021. Though Rathdrum only added 1,000 people while Post Falls added over 4,000. Coeur d’Alene added just over 1,300 people in the same time, and grew by only 2.5%. Hayden grew by 4% from 2020 to 2021, adding 638 people.

Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Hayden and Rathdrum each use a comprehensive plan as a guiding document for city planning that projects population growth into 2040. Each city has a vision for how the city will grow based on those numbers and the plan is used for things like construction priorities and to guide approvals for developments or zone changes.

If the cities' populations grow at the rates expected in their plans, without growing in land size, they will have the following number of people per square mile by 2040:

Hayden: 3,300

Rathdrum: 3,500

Coeur d’Alene: 5,000

Post Falls: 6,300

For reference the following city’s population densities are per square mile for 2022:

Boise: 2,800

Spokane: 3,600

Sacramento, Calif., and Coconut Creek, Fla.: 5,000

Schenectady, N.Y.: 6,000

Fullerton, Calif., or Buffalo, N.Y.: 6,300

If the planning projections are accurate, that would be a population of 260,000 in Kootenai county, currently with a population of 183,578 according to the U.S. Census data.

That’s a 44% increase over 17 years.

Coeur d’Alene would see a 60% increase in the same time. Post Falls and Rathdrum populations are expected to double, and Hayden would increase by 85%, based on the cities’ comprehensive plans and population projections.