Economy

The US State Losing The Most People

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: December 23, 2023 12:12 pm

The Census puts out a report that covers US population growth from year to year. Each year ends based on a July 31 fiscal. The latest version is titled “U.S. Population Trends Return to Pre-Pandemic Norms as More States Gain Population.” The report had two primary conclusions. People started to relocate more often, as they had before the rapid spread of COVID-19 in early 2020. And, annual death counts across the country have dropped due to fewer COVID-19 fatalities.

The national population in mid-2023 was 334,914,895, up 1.6 million from the immediately prior annual period. The decline in deaths between the two periods was 9%.

The population grew in 42 states and DC. Growth in southern states accounted for 87% of the nation’s growth. Most of this was in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Texas remained the second-largest state by population at 30,503,301, behind California’s 38,965,193. This is the state people from California are moving to the most.

Several states lost a fairly large number of residents. These states were geographically diverse. The Census reports they were California -75,423, Hawaii -4,261, Illinois -32,826, Louisiana -14,274, New York -101,984, Oregon -6,021, Pennsylvania -10,408, and West Virginia -3,964.

New York, which lost the most people in the new Census survey, was the largest state by population from 1810 until 1964 when California passed it. New York currently ranks fourth, with a population of 19,571,216, below Florida, with a population of 22,601,726. These are America’s fastest-growing counties. 

What has happened to New York to cause the drop in population? As much as anything else, it is the broad trend that brought people to California, Texas, and Florida and now brings them to the Carolinas and other parts of the South. It is a decades-long trend and not one that happened directly before or after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.