New census numbers show why North Carolina’s population keeps growing
North Carolina remains one of the nation’s fastest growing states, primarily because it continues to attract people from other parts of the country.
The state added an estimated 133,088 residents in the year ending last July 1, according to the latest population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s the third highest numerical growth in the country, after Texas (470,708) and Florida (416,754).
Three quarters of North Carolina’s growth was attributed to domestic migration. Nearly 100,000 more people moved to the state from elsewhere in the country during the year than left it, according to the Census Bureau. International immigration and natural population growth (births over deaths) accounted for the rest of the increase.
North Carolina had an estimated 10,698,973 residents last July 1, according to the Census Bureau. It remains the country’s ninth most populous state, after Georgia and ahead of Michigan. The state’s annual growth rate of 1.3% was in the top 10; Florida led all states, with 1.9%.
The Census Bureau says international migration accounted for most of the country’s population growth in the year ending July 1. The country grew by 1.26 million residents, with net migration from abroad accounting for 80% of them.
In North Carolina, net international migration added about 26,000 residents, compared to 10,000 the previous year, according to the state Office of State Budget and Management. Natural population growth accounted for just 5% of the total last year, or about 6,000 people.
Growth up from ‘historically low’ level
The .4% increase in national population was more than double the rate a year earlier but remains historically low. For most of the 20th century, the country’s population grew somewhere between 1% and 2% a year. The rate of less than .2% in 2021 was the lowest on record.
Declines in both immigration and natural growth, as the population ages, have contributed to more modest growth in recent years. That’s particularly true during the pandemic, when more than a million Americans died of COVID-19. Both trends reversed a bit last year.
“There was a sizable uptick in population growth last year compared to the prior year’s historically low increase,” Kristie Wilder, a Census Bureau demographer, said in a statement. “A rebound in net international migration, coupled with the largest year-over-year increase in total births since 2007, is behind this increase.”
All 50 states saw a net increase in international migration. But 18 states lost population during the year, either because of residents moving to other states, because deaths outnumbered births or both. In 24 states, more people died than were born.
New York, California and Illinois each lost more than 100,000 residents, while population shrank by .5% or more in New York, Illinois, Louisiana, West Virginia and Hawaii.
It takes the Census Bureau several months to make its population estimates. But the bureau’s demographers took a stab at forecasting the U.S. population on New Year’s Day.
As people celebrated the start of 2023, they say the country had an estimated 334,233,854 residents.
This story was originally published January 3, 2023 at 5:55 AM with the headline "New census numbers show why North Carolina’s population keeps growing."
