Census: U.S. Population Growing Slower Than Any Point Since the Nation's Founding

"According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2021 national and state population estimates and components of change released today, the population of the United States grew in the past year by 392,665, or 0.1%, the lowest rate since the nation’s founding," according to a press release from the U.S. Census Bureau published today.

"The slow rate of growth can be attributed to decreased net international migration, decreased fertility, and increased mortality due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic," adds the press release.

Among the firsts recorded in this data release: "This is the first time that net international migration (the difference between the number of people moving into the country and out of the country) has exceeded natural increase for a given year."

The South region, one of four regions considered by the dominates the population news. The South is the most populous of the four U.S. Census regions and the only region with a positive net domestic migration of 657,682 between 2020 and 2021.

Other big trends to be found in the new data:

• The largest net domestic migration gains were in Florida (220,890), Texas (170,307) and Arizona (93,026).
• Twenty-five states experienced natural decrease in 2021, where there were more deaths than births. This was attributed to further decreases in fertility combined with increased mortality.
• In 2021, 20 states and the District of Columbia lost residents via net domestic migration. Largest domestic migration losses were in California (-367,299), New York (-352,185) and Illinois (-122,460).

For more insight into the new data, the Associated Press reported the news of the Census data, positioning the news about the nation's unprecedented slow growth in the first sentence.