Between 1982 and 2017, Arizona los 1,744 square miles (1.1 million acres) of natural habitat and farmland, disappearing under buildings, pavement, gravel and other surfaces. This represented a profound,
long-term loss of agricultural potential, ecological values and functions, and quality-of-life amenities for Arizonans. This destruction is not a sustainable trend.
Arizona’s population growth of 4.2 million between 1982 and 20178 was responsible for 12 times more sprawl than all other factors combined. These combined factors contribute to a per capita land
consumption figure, which in most Arizona cities not only did not increase but diminished by 2017. In other words, most Arizonans in 2017 were living on less land per person and more densely than in 1982. But population growth negated all the anti-sprawl benefits of that density.
