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Census: Chandler overtakes Glendale as 4th largest city in Arizona by Edythe Jensen - Mar. 10, 2011 07:03 PM The Arizona Republic Chandler has officially overtaken Glendale as Arizona's fourth largest city but newly released census figures are below estimates, and that came as a surprise to city officials. The count released this week is 236,123; that's 19,529 fewer than the 255,652 estimate Chandler posts on its municipal website. Long-range planner David DeLaTorre said the higher figure is based on a 250,000 U.S. Census Bureau estimate from 2009 and homes built since then. The official tally could reflect a glut of vacant houses, but DeLaTorre said he will check census documents to verify that all dwellings were counted. If they were not, the city may challenge the results, he said. Councilman Kevin Hartke chaired Chandler's census committee and said he suspected the official count would be slightly below estimates but was surprised by the big difference. "There was a fair amount of apathy and fear, and some people don't like being counted," he said. The count indicates that Chandler grew by 33.7 percent since 2000 when the population was 176,581. Glendale grew by 3.6 percent and is home to 226,721. The state's most populous cities are Phoenix (1,445,632), Tucson (520,116) and Mesa (439,041). Behind Chandler and Glendale are Scottsdale (217,385), Gilbert (208,453), Tempe (161,719) and Peoria (154,065). The census reports 22 percent of Chandler residents are Hispanic, 8.2 percent are Asian and 4.7 percent are African-American. Mayor Jay Tibshraeny said the census is a reflection of the economy and earlier estimates were based on the optimism of boom times. "Our population growth came to a screeching halt around 2007 because of the recession and the housing industry was turned upside down," he said. "We were probably not growing as fast as we thought we were during the ramped-up period." Eddie Encinas, who was born in Chandler 79 years ago and has lived in the same central city home since 1974, said he has seen more turnover in his neighborhood recently than he has in more than three decades and believes high housing vacancy rates are behind the lower census count. "A of people have left; there are a lot of empty houses." |