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From KELO-TV

We've just finished celebrating the Fourth. Tomorrow's date will feature a sequence of sevens: 07-07-07. But perhaps the number with the most significance this July is 150,000. That's the estimated population Sioux Falls is expected to reach by month's end.

Perhaps that new family moving in down the street will put Sioux Falls over the 150,000 population benchmark. Assistant Planning Director Jeff Schmitt said, "150's going to be a big change for Sioux Falls."

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to zero-in on Sioux Falls' estimated population. The city simply adds up the number of new housing permits for each year and multiplies it by an average of two-point-four people. That amount gets tacked onto the latest official census count. The city fine-tunes the total by factoring in a housing vacancy rate of five-to-ten percent. Federal estimates are lagging behind city hall's projections by about 38-hundred people. But the city stands by its unofficial numbers. Schmitt said, "Last time in the year 2000, we had estimated we had 124,000 people in the city of Sioux Falls that was our estimate and they came out with 123,975, so we were pretty close."

Sioux Falls grows by about 3-thousand people every year. Reaching 150-thousand is as much a psychological lift as it is a numerical accomplishment. "People that move to Sioux Falls will have a different perception of Sioux Falls that want to live in a community of that size, as well as retail people."

City hall isn't ready to predict the exact date we'll hit 150,000. But it will likely happen this month. Just keep counting down the days, and the city will keep counting up the people.

City hall isn't sure yet how to observe the day we hit 150,000 people.

Sioux Falls is expected to reach 200,000 in the year 2020.