Over the last 10 years, Vermilion Parish is estimated to have grown by only four percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which is below the national growth average.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced recently that the 2010 Census showed the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2010, grew by nine percent.

The resident population represented an increase of 9.7 percent over the 2000 U.S. resident population of 281,421,906.

In Vermilion Parish, however, the estimated population is expected to be around 56,200, which is about 2,393 more people than in 2000.

Vermilion Parish had its biggest jump in population growth from the years 2004 to 2008 when the population grew by 1,700.

Over the last two years, the population is expected to have grown by only 140 people.

The average family in Vermilion Parish is made up of three people and the average household income is $41,000 per year. However, according to the 2008 Census report, 18 percent of Vermilion Parish live in poverty.

Nationally, the most populous state was California (37,253,956); the least populous, Wyoming (563,626). The state that gained the most numerically since the 2000 Census was Texas (up 4,293,741 to 25,145,561) and the state that gained the most as a percentage of its 2000 Census count was Nevada (up 35.1% to 2,700,551).

Regionally, the South and the West picked up the bulk of the population increase, 14,318,924 and 8,747,621, respectively. But the Northeast and the Midwest also grew: 1,722,862 and 2,534,225.