This week city officials received formal notice that the U.S. Census Bureau has accepted the Utah County city's challenge of a July 1, 2004, population estimate that put it at 99,264 residents.

That number has now been changed to 111,718. First-class cities are those with populations greater than 100,000.

"The census estimate [now] more accurately reflects Provo's population," Mayor Lewis Billings said Friday. "This has important impacts on the distribution of federal transportation monies and state income-tax monies."

This is true because population estimates determine what share each city gets of those tax monies. Charlie Roberts, spokesman for the Utah Tax Commission, said Provo's new population estimate will result in an added $400,000 to $500,000 share for the city.

When the 2004 census estimate was released in July 2005, Billings said the lower number baffled him, and he promised the city would appeal. He said he believed the city was closer to 110,000 to 115,000 in population.

The city formally appealed last month, including in that appeal information on building permits issued, residential units created and group-home population estimates.

"We were confident that once we were able to share our numbers with them, they would revise their estimates," Billings said.

Provo is one of 15 Utah cities this year to appeal the census estimates, according to the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget, and one of nine whose challenges were accepted by the Census Bureau. Seven of those nine cities are located in Utah County.

"On a nationwide basis, there are not a lot of challenges to the Census Bureau estimates," said Robert Spendlove, the director of Demographic and Economic Analysis for the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget. "But in Utah it is much more common. And in Utah County it's even more common."

In 1998, 11 Utah cities successfully challenged their population estimates, five of which were in Utah County.

Spendlove said Utah County cities usually file more challenges because of the complexity of Provo's and Orem's university atmosphere.

Spendlove, who acts as a liaison between the bureau and local governments, said one reason college areas can be problematic is because the bureau uses the flow of IRS tax returns as a major measuring tool for population estimates.

Students typically move into areas without jobs and without being married. Then they often get jobs, get married, have children and move out, resulting in census numbers indicating a net migration of three or four people when it failed to account for the original person moving in, he said.

"Provo seems to be one of the perfect examples of a flaw in their system," Spendlove said.

Though the Census Bureau granted Provo's challenge, it didn't settle on numbers the city submitted. The city had asked the revised figure to be set at 115,112, nearly 3,400 more than the final change.

Census Bureau officials said the difference was due to corrections made to populations living in group quarters and the number of building permits used for calculating the housing unit estimate.

Provo remains the state's third-largest city, behind Salt Lake City and West Valley City.

thollingshead@sltrib.com

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The winners

Utah cities that won their challenge to 2004 census numbers:

l Provo: Original estimate: 99,624 Revised estimate: 111,718

l Lehi: Original estimate: 25,665 Revised estimate: 27,633

l Logan: Original estimate: 45,517 Revised estimate: 45,795

l Spanish Fork: Original estimate: 22,839 Revised estimate: 25,528

l Brigham City: Original estimate: 17,149 Revised estimate: 18,279

l Eagle Mountain: Original estimate: 8,190 Revised estimate: 8,760

l Lindon: Original estimate: 8,489 Revised estimate: 9,410

l Payson: Original estimate: 14,542 Revised estimate: 15,990

l Santaquin: Original estimate: 5,815 Revised estimate: 6,545

l Cities still awaiting Census Bureau decision: Springville, Saratoga Springs, Alpine, Cedar Hills, Elk Ridge and Cedar Fort.

Source: State of Utah