Las Vegas CBS KXNT – An annual population estimate released by the federal government shows that Clark County now has more than two million residents. Local experts suggest there’s a correlation between population growth and economic growth.

When things are booming, people move in. When things go bust, people move out, says Clark County’s Manager of Advanced Planning, Jon Wardlaw, who points to a decline in regional population following the economic crash.

“We had a very severe hit economically to the region,” he said of the period following the 2007 economic meltdown. “We lost, by many accounts, seventy, eighty, a hundred thousand people.”

Now, as southern Nevada pulls slowly out of the hole, tourism is rebounding, and the county got more than 20,000 new residents since the last annual estimate.

The federal numbers are useful for county planning purposes, Wardlaw told KXNT.

“We use some of the information in applications for federal grants, projects, facilities, services,” Wardlaw said.