WASHINGTON — Utah is the nation's fastest growing state, knocking Nevada from its usual top spot.

Utah's population climbed by 2.5 percent from July 2007 to July 2008, according to new population estimates from the Census Bureau. Arizona is the second-fastest growing state, followed by Texas, North Carolina and Colorado.

Census data was released this morning by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Pennsylvania grew at a 1.4 percent rate. It added 167,000 people and has an estimated 12.4 million people.

Nevada, last year's fastest-growing state, fell to eighth. Nevada had been among the four fastest-growing states each of the past 23 years.

Only two states — Michigan and Rhode Island — lost population from 2007 to 2008.

California remained the most populous state, followed by Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois and Pennsylvania.