By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

              WASHINGTON (AP) -- They came in droves to work in meatpacking plants in
              Minnesota and Nebraska, tend crops in Kentucky and manufacture carpets in Georgia
              mills.

              Hispanics surged beyond the country's traditional immigrant gateways and into small
              Southern towns and Midwestern farm communities in the past decade, data from the
              2000 census shows. They helped fill increasingly available low-wage jobs that opened
              up during the 1990s.

              That growth also introduced new social dynamics and problems once thought strictly
              the province of big cities, from overcrowded schools and health centers to simple
              communication between English and non-English speakers.

              ``Variety is the spice of life,'' said Ilana Dubester, a Latino community liaison in Siler
              City, N.C. Hispanics made up 4 percent of the town's 4,808 people in 1990. By
              2000, they constituted 39 percent of Siler City's 6,966 residents, drawn by jobs at
              chicken-processing plants and textile mills.

              The growth is ``surprising to everybody,'' said Dubester, a native of Brazil who first
              arrived in Chicago but has lived in North Carolina the past 11 years. ``But when you
              have industries here without labor, and labor across the border that needs work, it's
              a natural chain of events.''

              Nationally, the population grew 13 percent, from 248.7 million in 1990 to 281.4
              million in 2000. The addition of 32.7 million people in a decade represented the
              largest census-to-census increase in American history, the bureau said Monday.

              Despite growth in non-urban areas, over 80 percent of the population still lived in
              metropolitan areas. The New York City metropolitan area led with 21.2 million
              people.

              Sparked by population booms in the West and South, the bureau also announced
              Monday that the U.S. population is now centered in Phelps County, Mo., about
              three miles east of Edgar Springs. That is approximately 12 miles south and 32 miles
              west of the 1990 population center near Steelville, Mo.

              The Hispanic population grew 58 percent nationwide, from 22.4 million in 1990 to
              35.3 million in 2000. Hispanics drew virtually even with non-Hispanic blacks as the
              country's largest minority group.

              New York, Los Angeles, San Diego and other cities remained urban cores for the
              Latino population. Leading states are New Mexico, Texas, Florida and Arizona.

              The Hispanic population in New Mexico, for instance, grew 32 percent in the
              decade. In 2000, the state's 765,000 Hispanics were 42 percent of the total
              population, the highest percentage in the country.

              In Los Angeles, about 47 percent of residents identified themselves as Hispanics,
              while 27 percent of New York City residents did so.

              But the once-a-decade head count of America also provided evidence to support a
              projected trend: growth among Latinos across the South and Midwest in states that,
              until recently, were primarily made up of non-Hispanic whites and blacks.

              Among the findings:

              --North Carolina led the country in Hispanic growth, up 394 percent over the
              decade, followed by Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and Nevada.

              --While the actual number of Hispanics was far fewer than California, Midwestern
              states such as Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa had greater growth rates.

              ``This is no different than the settlement of the prairie a century ago,'' said Marcie
              McLaughlin, executive director of Minnesota Rural Partners, a Redwood Falls,
              Minn.-based economic development program.

              ``Some communities have made more of a conscious effort of welcoming
              (Hispanics) because they realize they are now a part of the economic fabric,''
              McLaughlin said.

              Much of the growth in those states resulted from a higher-than-expected influx of
              immigration during the prosperous 1990s, demographers said.

              But many of those new residents also arrived from American urban centers as well
              in the search for work and a better quality of life, said Linda Barros, director of new
              programs for the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Latino civil rights
              organization.

              Al Lopez is proof. He came to the mainland from Puerto Rico 13 years ago, living
              first in Oklahoma before settling in Rogers, Ark., in 1994.

              Lopez is now a counselor at Rogers High School, a liaison to the fast-growing
              Hispanic student population. When he first came, there were 40 Hispanic students;
              now they account for about 20 percent of the school's 2,500 students.

              ``I saw it coming when I first started to work here. They were not migrant workers
              arriving, but people looking for a better style of life,'' Lopez said. ``They're here to
              stay.''