The growth estimates released Friday are based on state estimates for 2005 that were revised after several Utah cities challenged their census estimates. The 2005 estimate was boosted by more than 20,000 people to 2.49 million.

That boost is part of the reason why the population gap is closing. Another is that the Census Bureau has seen more domestic migration to Utah, said Greg Harper, a demographer for the U.S. Census Bureau.

"It could just be that our method is catching trends they saw previously," Harper said.

Utah demographers have long believed the Census Bureau is undercounting migration into Utah. Following local challenges, the Census Bureau doubled its estimate for Utah's gain from migration from 13,000 to 31,000, Spendlove said. That number is still below the state's estimate of 40,000 people.

The migration estimates are closer this year than in the past, but the census' estimate of births is off from the state's by about 3,415, said Pamela Perlich, senior research economist at the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

"We hit record births again this year," Perlich said. "They are still underestimating us."

Perlich added that both the state and federal estimates are likely undercounting migration into the state this year.

The census estimates for 2006 show that Utah gained more people through domestic migration than international, unlike prior years. However, Perlich said much of Utah's domestic migration comes from California, with people who were originally from Latin America.

"We get a lot of our foreign-born population from California. That's the circuit they are coming through," she said. "That doesn't mean they are native born."

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