The latest report on national and state population estimates was released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Dec. 30, 2019, indicating that the natural increase in the country’s total population dropped below 1 million for the first time.
Between 2018 and 2019, there were 3.7 million births and 2.8 million deaths. Natural increase (950,000) is calculated by subtracting the death rate from the birth rate.
Forty-two states had fewer births last year than in 2018, while eight states had more births.
The eight states are Washington (612), Utah (293), Nevada (232), Arizona (175), Idaho (166), Montana (66), Vermont (44), and Colorado (30).
“While natural increase is the biggest contributor to the United States population increase, it has been slowing over the last five years,” Dr. Sandra Johnson, a demographer/statistician in the Population Division of the Census Bureau said. “Natural increase, or when the number of births is greater than the number of deaths, dropped below 1 million in 2019 for the first time in decades.”
(U.S. Census Bureau)
In 2019, the total population of the United States was 328 million, and between 2018 to 2019, the population grew by 0.5 percent or 1.5 million. Well down on the 0.73 percent growth between 2014 and 2015, indicating a 5-year growth slowdown.
According to the census report, the South, which is the largest of the four regions, saw the most significant growth due to the rise in natural increase and domestic migration. Meaning people moved from one location to another within the United States.
California lost over 200,000 residents to domestic migration between 2018 to 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
California was among the top states that had the highest numbers of people who left for other states, according to state population totals released on Monday, with minus 203,414 residents. New York state had a loss of 180,649, Illinois had minus 104,986, New Jersey had minus 48,946, Massachusetts had minus 30,274, and 26,045 left the state of Louisiana.
The report said that between 2018 and 2019, 27 states plus Washington lost population to domestic migration. Six of the 27 lost over 25,000 people, and three of the 27 lost more than 100,000.
“Our failure to build enough housing is at the heart of CA’s challenges: It’s exploding housing costs; It’s fueling homelessness & poverty; It’s creating sprawl, increasing traffic, commutes & wildfire risk,” Democratic California state Sen. Scott Wiener wrote on Twitter.
Epoch Times reporter Paul Liu contributed to this report.