US sees highest population growth in over 2 decades. What's the cause?
The United States population grew by 3.3 million people this year, the highest increase in more than two decades that was primarily driven by immigration, according to data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The nearly 1% increase marked the sharpest annual growth in population since 2001, the bureau said, bringing the nation's total population to 340 million and raising the number of inhabitants in nearly every state. The estimates also mark a stark contrast to the record low growth rate of 0.2% in 2021, a time when countries were restricting travel because of COVID-19, the U.S. Census Bureau said.
This year, international migration accounted for 84% of the population growth between 2023 and 2024, with 2.8 million people moving to the U.S. both legally and illegally. The bureau said the growth was, in large part, due to a change in the way it calculates net immigration that now includes those allowed entry for humanitarian reasons.
"Improved integration of federal data sources on immigration has enhanced our estimates methodology," said Christine Hartley, assistant division chief for estimates and projections. "With this update, we can better understand how the recent increase in international migration is impacting the country's overall population growth."
Using the new methodology, the bureau made revisions to previous estimates, raising immigration growth rates to 2.3 million for 2023 and 1.7 million for 2022. The consistent rise reflects a yearslong trend of immigration outpacing birth as "the primary driver of the nation’s growth," said Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the census bureau’s population division.
The latest census data arrived just weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to carry out a mass deportation of immigrants living in the U.S. unlawfully.
Increasing birth rate
Another contributor to the surge in U.S. population growth this year was births, which have risen since hitting an all-time low in 2021.
Births outnumbered deaths by almost 519,000, which is well within the highs of previous decades but a marked difference from 2021's historic low of 146,000.
Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia experienced more births than deaths – up from 31 states in 2023 and 25 states in 2022. The states with the highest birth rates this year were Texas, California and New York. Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida had the highest death rates.
The South remains fastest growing, most populous region
Continuing a yearslong trend, the South remained the fastest growing region in the U.S., adding 1.8 million people this year, more than all other regions combined.
The surge in residents was largely tied to immigration, though the South – which the bureau designates as stretching from Texas to Delaware – was also the only region where the number of people moving there exceeded those leaving.
A total of 47 states saw increases in population. Texas and Florida added the most people with 562,941 and 467,347 new residents, respectively. They were among the states that saw the highest gains attributed to immigration, with 411,322 immigrants moving to Florida and 319,569 relocating to Texas.
The only states that saw overall losses in population this year were Vermont, Mississippi and West Virginia, according to the bureau.
Are people still fleeing major cities?
People continued to leave states with the nation's largest cities, however, the exodus was not as pronounced as in recent years, census data shows.
The states that saw the most people flee for other parts of the country were California (-239,575) and New York (-120,917). In each of these states, the decrease was offset by the large number of immigrants that moved there, according to the the bureau.
Since the pandemic and the rise of remote work, Americans have traded large, coastal metropolitan areas for more affordable midsize cities and smaller towns. This year, the states where most Americans moved from other parts of the country were Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Contributing: Marc Ramirez and Paul Davidson, Paste BN