ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Skip to main content

International migration drove U.S. population growth in 2022

Share

The U.S. population expanded by 1.2 million people this year, with growth largely driven by international migration, and the nation now has 333.2 million residents, according to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Net international migration -- the number of people moving into the U.S. minus the number of people leaving -- was more than 1 million residents from 2021 to 2022. That represented a growth rate of 168% over the previous year's 376,029 international migrants, with every state gaining residents from abroad, according to the 2022 population estimates.

Natural growth -- the number of births minus the number of deaths -- added another 245,080 people to the total in what was the first year-over-year increase in total births since 2007.

This year's U.S. annual growth rate of 0.4% was a rebound of sorts from the 0.1% growth rate during the worst of the pandemic from 2020 to 2021, which was the lowest since the nation's founding.

"It's welcome because we would have been back to almost flatline growth if not for this immigration," said William Frey, a demographer at The Brookings Institution.

Regionally, the Northeast lost almost 219,000 people in a trend largely driven by domestic residents moving out of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, as well as deaths outpacing births in Pennsylvania. The Midwest also lost almost 49,000 residents, driven in part by people moving out of Illinois and deaths outpacing births in Ohio.

The South gained 1.3 million residents, the largest of any region, driven by population gains in Texas and Florida that approached a half-million residents each. Other Southern states like North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee had among the largest growth in numbers in the U.S.

Texas, the second most populous state in the U.S., surpassed the 30 million-resident mark, joining California as the only other state in this category.

But California lost more than 113,000 residents, and had a population just over 39 million in 2022, in what was the biggest annual decline behind New York's more than 180,000-resident loss. The population decline was driven by more than 343,000 domestic residents moving out of California, and it helped drag down the West region's population gain to only 153,000 residents.

Despite the overall population loss, California had the largest growth of any state in international residents, just a hair's breadth ahead of Florida with more than 125,000 people. California also had the second highest natural increase, only trailing Texas. Births outpacing deaths and the international arrivals made California's population loss smaller than last year, when it dropped by more than 358,000 residents.

The West region in 2022 lost some of its luster as a magnet for domestic migration. Without international migration and a sizeable natural increase from births outpacing deaths, the West region would have lost population due to domestic residents also moving out of Oregon and Washington. Western hotspots like Utah, Idaho and Montana had smaller gains than last year.

Some of the slower growth in the West has to do with the pandemic, which led to fewer people moving, and also the increasing cost of living in places once regarded as cheaper alternatives to California, according to Frey.

"There isn't as much magnetism for those classic magnets for moving out of California," Frey said.

Puerto Rico lost 40,000 residents, or 1.3% of its population, due to people moving away and deaths outpacing births, and its population now stands at 3.2 million residents.

CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.

An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.

DEVELOPING

DEVELOPING Here's what we know about Israel's latest strike in Beirut

Smoke is rising over Lebanon’s capital of Beirut Friday after Israel’s military struck southern suburbs – a dramatic escalation in a year-long period of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

BREAKING

BREAKING

Emergency crews in northern Ontario found the bodies of four people inside a home where a fire broke out Thursday night.

The Montreal couple from Mexico and their three children facing deportation have received a temporary residence permit.

Local Spotlight

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.