State & US Population Growth 2019

The U.S. Census Bureau just released their estimates for changes in state population for 2019. While population alone does not guarantee economic growth, population and economic growth are positively correlated.

Percentage population growth rates for the periods from July 1, 2018 to July 1, 2019 and from July 1 2010 to July 1, 2019, sorted by the 12-month gain ending July 1, 2019 are shown in the first table. All of the top-five states are West of the Mississippi. Idaho topped all states for the 12-month growth at 2.1 percent and was the only state hitting 2 percent. Nine states registered a drop in population from July 1, 2018 to July 1, 2019: Vermont, Mississippi, Connecticut, Louisiana, Hawaii, New York, Illinois, Alaska and West Virginia. The combined population loss from these nine states of 174,693 people more than canceled the gains from Arizona (up 120,693) and Nevada (up 52,8150), combined.

Total net population change is shown in the next table, sorted from the largest gain to losses from 2018 to 2019. Also included is each state’s percentage of the total U.S. gain along with a cumulative percentage. The four states with the greatest increase in population (Texas-Florida-Arizona-North Carolina) accounted for more than one-half of the total U.S. gain. Texas, which added the most at 367,215, accounted for almost one-in-every-four net-new people in the country (23.7 percent) in 2019.

All related statistics and metrics are shown in the last table for the 50 states, District of Columbia and the U.S.

As noted earlier, population growth does not guaranty economic gains as consumers require effective purchasing power. The desire for housing ownership, for example, increases as the population grows, but without jobs with incomes enabling the acquisition of a home, the population increase is mute. The U.S. remains one of the few economically developed countries still gaining population. See the previous blog on World Population Forecast by clicking here.

Ted