The town has been going through a rather large period of growth as of late, with more and more developers looking to take advantage of Londonderry’s array of undeveloped land with the hopes of expanding.
According to a recent press release by the United States Census Bureau, Londonderry has become the fastest-growing town in New Hampshire. The list, which notes that in order to be considered, the town must have at least fifty citizens, Londonderry grew at a rate of 2.88% from 2015 to 2016, adding 724 new residents. Walpole came in second with a 2.79% growth rate, and Lincoln in third with 2.40%.
Although the press release focused on the large amount of growth occurring in areas like Texas, New Hampshire increasing its population size by 0.35%. Only 11 of the 50 states managed to grow at a rate of over one percent during the year, with Utah topping the list at 1.99%. Eight states had shrunk.
Take into account population changes from the beginning of July, 2015 to July, 2016, the Northeast had the largest growth of any other region. Towns with populations of less than 5,000 decreased by seven, and those with populations between 5,000 and 10,000 dropped by 11.
With a sudden influx of growth may come the potential for increased crime, more fire, police, teachers, bigger or new school building, water problems, heavy traffic and safety issues to name a few. According to the FBI’s Offenses Known to Law Enforcement survey, when Londonderry saw a growth of 111 people between 2014 and 2015, the town reported four more violent crimes, three more robberies, two more aggravated assaults, 53 more property crimes, 53 more thefts, and twice as many motor vehicle thefts in the latter year than the former.
Despite these figures, according to neighborhoodscout.com, a website that tracks the average number of crimes in various towns of different states; Londonderry can be listed as safer than roughly 56% of towns because we added more police.