Construction work continues on a new apartment complex on February 28, 2023 in Austin, Texas. Apartment rents have fallen in major U.S. metropolitan areas over the past six months, according to findings from The Wall Street Journal. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
A recent wave of immigration brought newcomers to every state this year, offsetting a continued decline in U.S. births while contributing to a national rebound of about 3.3 million new residents, according to new estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Texas and Florida continued to dominate the state’s population growth, adding more than 1 million people between mid-2023 and mid-2024 and accounting for nearly a third of the nation’s population growth. The state figures include births, deaths, immigrants and residents moving from other states.
Nationally, this year’s population growth was higher than the 2.8 million increase in 2023 and the 1.9 million increase in 2022, according to population estimates released Thursday.
The population jump – the largest single-year increase since 2001 – was supported by a 21% increase in net immigration.
According to figures from the US Census Bureau, Virginia saw its population increase by 0.9% between July 2023 and July 2024, with 76,510 newcomers arriving in the Commonwealth during that time.
Of that growth, 73.4% was due to immigration, with 56,155 migrants moving here during the same period.
According to an analysis of the data by William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, immigration has become a more important factor in population changes. left-wing think tank.
“This underscores the importance of immigration, not just for a few large states, but for a broad swath of our country,” Frey said. “It will be very welcome in many places where not many people will go [would be] losing people because of lower fertility and higher deaths.”
Immigration grew in every state, ranging from an increase of about 69,000 people in Florida and California and 57,000 in Texas, to a few hundred in Montana and Wyoming. Immigrant population growth ranged from 19% in Alaska to 36% in Montana.
California and Illinois were among the states that lost residents earlier this decade, and their growth over the past year could help both stem expected losses in congressional representation after the next national census in 2030.
If growth continues, California’s loss would be reduced to three seats in the U.S. House of Representatives instead of four, and Illinois could lose one seat instead of two, said Kimball Brace, a Virginia-based redistricting expert.
Florida, where growth has slowed slightly, could get one fewer congressional seat than forecast — three instead of four, he said.
“It’s clear that immigration is going to play a role – a few years ago people were talking about California going into the depths [with population loss] and now it doesn’t seem as deep,” said Brace, president of the political consulting firm Election Data Services Inc.
According to census estimates, California ranked third in the number of new residents from July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024, with a gain of about 233,000, thanks to both immigration and people moving in from other states. The Golden State was followed by North Carolina (165,000) and New York (130,000). Illinois grew by about 68,000 and Louisiana by about 9,700.
Florida and Texas were also the leaders in percentage change, with growth of about 2% that year, followed by Utah (1.8%), South Carolina and Nevada (both 1.7%), and Idaho and North Carolina (both up 1.5%).
Only three states experienced population losses of a few hundred people each this year: West Virginia, Vermont and Mississippi.
In Texas, the cities of Houston, Austin and Dallas added the most new housing last year — including nearly 40,000 new homes — and are likely to become centers of new population growth, according to a November state report. Collin County, a suburb of Dallas, is also one of the state’s fastest-growing areas, adding more than 16,000 new homes last year and nearly 64,000 since 2020, according to the report.
According to a state report this year, Florida’s recent growth has been concentrated in Jacksonville, Port St. Lucie, Miami, Tampa and Orlando.
An excess of births over deaths helped most in New York, California, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
New York City has built more housing, which has helped limit net losses from people moving, said Jan Vink, senior extension fellow at Cornell University’s Program on Applied Demographics.
That is encouraging news for the future of the state, according to Vink. In November, the university estimated that New York’s population could shrink by as much as 2 million people over the next 25 years due to low fertility rates and an aging population, unless these losses are offset by new arrivals in the form of immigration or by people moving move from other countries. states.
Texas, the Carolinas, Florida and Tennessee had the largest numbers of new residents moving in from other states, although the numbers in all those states were lower than the previous year as high interest rates and home prices caused more people to postpone their moves.
