Winston-Salem moved ahead of Durham in population again after the U.S. Census Bureau said yesterday that the city had an estimated 227,834 people in 2008.

The bureau revised its estimate for Winston-Salem after city officials challenged the previous 2008 estimate, which showed Winston-Salem with about 10,000 fewer people.

The Census Bureau had estimated the city's population at 217,600 - nearly 6,000 less than its revised 2007 estimate of 223,532.

City officials said last year that Winston-Salem's population should have been around 226,000.

Mayor Allen Joines and City Manager Lee Garrity said they believed that accurate information from the city-county planning board led the census bureau to revise its estimate upward.

"Our planning department has very good data that clearly shows the city's population," Garrity said.

The revised estimate is important because the federal government uses it to determine federal allocations and grants based on population, said Paul Norby, the city-county planning director.

The new census bureau estimate for Winston-Salem is still 528 fewer than the state demographer's estimate of 228,362, Norby said.

However, Joines said that the city is satisfied with the new estimate and is concentrating its efforts on making sure the city gets an accurate count in the 2010 Census.

Winston-Salem is now the state's fourth-largest city, just ahead of Durham, which had an estimated population of 223,284 in July 2008.

Winston-Salem and Durham have swapped places before because of changing census estimates.

Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro, in that order, remained the state's three largest cities.

With the revised estimates, Winston-Salem ranks as the 84th-largest city in the United States, ahead of Baton Rouge, La., and just behind Birmingham, Ala.