The initial plans for this book sprang from a late-afternoon conversation in a hotel bar. All three authors were attending the 1996 meeting of the Population As- ciation of America in New Orleans. While nursing drinks and expounding on a variety of topics, we began talking about our current research projects. It so happened that all three of us had been entertaining the notion of writing a book on state and local population projections. Recognizing the enormity of the project for a single author, we quickly decided to collaborate. Had we not decided to work together, it is unlikely that this book ever would have been written. The last comprehensive treatment of state and local population projections was Don Pittenger’s excellent work Projecting State and Local Populations (1976). Many changes affecting the production of population projections have occurred since that time. Technological changes have led to vast increases in computing power, new data sources, the development of GIS, and the creation of the Internet. The procedures for applying a number of projection methods have changed considerably, and several completely new methods have been developed.

Population estimates are observed to play a central part in both the qualification of local areas for Federal programs and in the distribution of fiscal assistance funds. General Revenue Sharing is singled out as perhaps the most familiar and well supported program relying, at least in part, upon total population as a distribution mechanism. Local research resulting in population estimates is noted to have been adopted for use in such allocation systems for selected States. The Federal-State Cooperative Program for Local Population Estimates (FSCP) has strengthened these programs through joint State-Census Bureau efforts. It is speculated that similar arrangements may be possible for other currently active legislative programs based upon population characteristics. Contact with a newly formed FSCP subcommittee, a Census Bureau estimating methods research unit, or State-local cooperative groups emerging in some States are suggested potential avenues for local research to impact as many as 103 separate pieces of legislation depending upon some item of population information for operation of the program. Similar opportunities are identified for population projections. Although no legislation contains formal provisions for the use of projections to the degree now specified for current population estimates, projections are relied upon for the administration of programs in the Environmental Protection Agency and in the Department of Transportation. Other instances of projections used in planning applications are identified, as are the likely points of entry for local research work.