ST. LOUIS  • City leaders are hopeful. Hopeful that a city that steadily dropped in population for 60 years is going to see an increase when the Census Bureau releases new population numbers for Missouri today.

Annual population estimates made by the Census Bureau over the past decade would indicate that is true. The 2000 census put the city's population at 348,189, the lowest since the city peaked in 1950 with 856,796.

The most recent population estimate for St. Louis was 356,587. That was July 1, 2009. The new population numbers coming out today are based on where people said they were living on April 1, 2010.

If the population holds steady from the last estimate, it would mean a gain of nearly 8,400 residents.

Still, city leaders are reluctant to uncork the champagne until the latest census numbers are revealed.

"When you look at the numbers, they are from a snapshot of April 1, 2010, when we were in the midst of a mortgage crisis, foreclosures and the Great Recession," said Don Roe, acting director of planning and urban design for the city. "What was the disruption of people's lives? Were they living with their brother-in-law? How that chessboard lays out, we just don't know."

The city has aggressively fought population estimates since 2003, and won, as Roe pointed out. Population gains not only show that a city is becoming a more attractive place to live, but the numbers are also the basis for divvying up several federal funds. The bigger the city, the more of the $400 billion it gets for more than 140 programs including building highways and bridges and funding school lunches and senior citizens services.

The growth in the city is coming largely from white residents, while the number of black residents is declining, based on census data showing the shift beginning in the middle of the last decade. The uptick in the white population mirrors what has been happening for more than a decade in other major U.S. cities, including Washington and Atlanta.

The opposite, however, is happening in St. Louis County, with black growth outpacing whites. The population numbers today are expected to show that after hitting the 1 million mark in 2000, the county's population could drop to near or below the 1990 number of 993,529.

The biggest decline in the county is expected in the communities just north of St. Louis, with continued growth in west St. Louis County. Jefferson County is poised to show healthy increases, but the largest growth spurts in the region are likely to be in Lincoln and St. Charles counties.

In 2000, Lincoln County had 38,944 people; today, that number is expected to be closer to 55,000. St. Charles County's population stood at 283,883 in 2000; population estimates have the number of people there now well north of 355,000.

It's quite possible that the numbers today could show St. Charles County larger in population than the city of St. Louis.

That's something, considering that in 1900, St. Louis had 575,238 residents, while St. Charles County's population was 24,474.