The U.S. population grew at its fastest pace in 23 years during 2024, surpassing 340 million residents, the U.S. Census Bureau reported on Thursday. With a growth rate of 1%, this year marked a significant rise compared to the record low of 0.2% recorded in 2021, when pandemic-related travel restrictions curbed immigration.
Immigration played a pivotal role in this demographic surge, adding nearly 2.8 million people to the population. A new method of counting individuals admitted for humanitarian reasons contributed to this increase. Net international migration accounted for 84% of the 3.3 million-person population rise between 2023 and 2024.
Births continued to outnumber deaths, with 519,000 more births than deaths recorded between 2023 and 2024. This figure represented an improvement from the historic low of 146,000 in 2021 but remained below the peaks observed in previous decades.
Immigration also significantly impacted population trends in individual states. In 16 states, population growth driven by immigration offset losses caused by residents moving to other states or deaths surpassing births. William Frey, a demographer at The Brookings Institution, emphasized this in an email, stating, “While some of the surge may be attributed to border crossings of asylees and humanitarian migrants in an unusual year, these numbers also show how immigration can be an important contributor to population gains in a large swath of the nation that would otherwise be experiencing slow growth or declines.”
The South continued its trend as the fastest-growing region in the United States, adding 1.8 million new residents in 2024—more than the combined total of all other regions. Texas led the nation with 562,941 new residents, followed by Florida, which gained 467,347 residents. The District of Columbia recorded the highest growth rate at 2.2%.
While most states experienced growth, three—Mississippi, Vermont, and West Virginia—saw slight population declines, losing between 127 and 516 residents.
The movement of residents from coastal urban states like California and New York to Sunbelt states such as Florida and Texas, a trend accelerated during the pandemic, showed signs of slowing in 2024, according to Frey. However, the broader demographic shift of population concentration moving south has continued, representing a dramatic change in the settlement patterns of the United States. Alex Zakrewsky, an urban planner in New Jersey, described this phenomenon as “a demographic shock to the evolving settlement pattern of the United States.”
A significant portion of international migration figures came from individuals entering the U.S. through humanitarian parole, a policy granting temporary entry to those unable to use standard immigration channels. The Migration Policy Institute noted that over 5.8 million individuals had been admitted under various humanitarian policies between 2021 and 2024.
Accurately estimating the number of new immigrants remains one of the most challenging aspects of the Census Bureau’s population calculations. While this year’s revised methodology was unrelated to political shifts, it comes just a month before President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Trump has pledged to carry out mass deportations of undocumented individuals in the U.S.
Discrepancies in immigration figures have been notable in recent years. For instance, the Census Bureau estimated 1.1 million immigrants entered the U.S. in 2023, compared to the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of 3.3 million. With the updated methodology, the Census Bureau recalculated 2023 immigration figures at nearly 2.3 million, adding an extra 1.1 million to previous estimates.
The previous undercounting stemmed from the bureau’s reliance on surveys of households with established addresses, which often excluded immigrants admitted for humanitarian reasons. Jennifer Van Hook, a demographer at Penn State who contributed to the Census Bureau’s methodological changes, explained, “What has happened over time is that immigration has changed. You have numbers of people coming in who are claiming asylum and being processed at the U.S.-Mexico border from across the globe.”
The Census Bureau’s annual population estimates provide critical data between the decennial census counts. These figures not only track population trends across the U.S., its states, counties, and metro areas but also serve as the basis for distributing trillions of dollars in federal funding.