Rural Population Grew Again in 2024

Rural communities in the United States grew for a fourth straight year, according to Census estimates.

“Nonmetropolitan, or rural, counties grew by 134,000 residents between 2023 and 2024, reversing a decade-long trend of population decline that happened between 2010 and 2020.” Although deaths still outnumber births in rural areas, a phenomenon known as natural decrease, more people moved to rural areas than the number of people who left.

According to Melotte, “A similar trend occurred in smaller metropolitan areas. Metro counties with populations fewer than 250,000, referred to simply as small metros in the table below, lost just over 2,000 residents to natural decrease in 2024. These counties, however, also gained an additional 226,200 residents by people moving in.” Only the nation’s largest and medium-sized metros had growth that was a combination of in-migration and natural growth.

The South saw the largest growth, with two-thirds of the rural population growth happening there. The South gained an additional 130,100 residents in 2024, resulting in a net growth of 88,200 people after natural decrease. “In terms of percent change, however, the largest growth last year happened in the Interior Northwest. Between 2023 and 2024, the Interior Northwest, which includes the states of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, grew by 12,000 residents, a 0.68% increase.”