Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 19, 1991                   TAG: 9103190082
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CENSUS: 30 COUNTIES TOP 1 MILLION MARK

Los Angeles County was the nation's largest, with 8.9 million people, followed by Cook County, Ill., at 5.1 million and Harris County, Texas, at 2.8 million. Chicago is in Cook County and Houston is in Harris.

Of the nation's 3,141 counties or equivalent areas, 45 percent lost population in the 1980s.

Midwestern counties fared worse than those in other regions in the last decade. Sixty-three percent of counties in the Midwest lost population, compared to 39 percent in the South, 30 percent in the West and 27 percent in the Northeast. - Associated Press