THE KEY BEING TO START LURING MORE HISPANICS:

"I don't want to make too big a deal of this - it's the first year of data. But it is suggestive that trends may be changing," said Ken Johnson, senior demographer with the Carsey Institute at UNH, a national authority on migration and demographic trends in the U.S.

Johnson was reacting to reports from the American Community Survey conducted by the Census Bureau, which indicated that in 2012, 11,800 more people moved into New Hampshire than moved out, compared to small losses in 2011 and 2010.

During the boom years, New Hampshire benefited from what is called "domestic in-migration" - people moving here from other states. In-migration helped balance out the shortage of births by New Hampshire residents that has contributed to it being one of the oldest states in the nation. That aging demographic has been called a "silver tsunami," a reference to the hair color of New Hampshire's relatively high proportion of senior citizens, who contribute relatively little to the working economy but add to health-care burdens.

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