It may come as a surprise to those trying to find an affordable apartment, a seat in the subway, or a traffic-free route across Manhattan, but the growth of New York State’s population has been lagging behind that of the rest of the nation. According to census data to be released today, New York State’s population grew 0.1%, compared to 1.0% for the nation, during the most recent year that was measured, between July 1, 2003, and July 1, 2004. We ranked 49th of the 50 states, with only Massachusetts behind us. Between 2000 and 2004, New York’s population was up 1.3%, a bit less than one-third of the national increase.

Those looking for an affordable apartment, a seat in the subway, or a traffic-free route across Manhattan may see this as good news on the theory that there are enough people already here. But at a more serious level it’s hard to see anything but a negative side to the state’s anemic population growth. Among the possible explanations: employers and workers are moving to places that are more business-friendly, fleeing New York state and local tax burdens that are among the nation’s highest. Robert Ward, the director of research at the Public Policy Institute, an arm of the Business Council of New York State, said of the census news yesterday, “Unfortunately, this is no surprise, given New York’s lagging job creation. People vote with their feet and go where they can find opportunity.”

More people here could at least spread the fixed expenses of state and local government over more New York taxpayers. More people would mean more talented workers for New York companies and more customers for New York stores and restaurants and landlords. As crowded as Midtown Manhattan is at holiday season, vast swathes of upstate New York and even parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx are under populated. If the rest of the country keeps growing faster than New York does, it will further diminish New York’s influence in Congress and in the Electoral College that chooses the country’s president. New York lost two congressional seats in the last constitutional census; if current population trends keep up, we’ll lose another two seats in the 2010 count. As the Goldwater Institute put it in a report issued earlier this year, “The Tax Man and the Moving Van,” “Management of population growth is the desirable problem, while dealing with a declining population is clearly the problem to avoid.”