The influx of migrants Its arrival in the U.S. in 2024 pushed the population to its highest rate of increase in 23 years, with the country’s population surpassing 340 million, according to a Thursday report from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Between 2023 and 2024, the U.S. population grew by almost 1%, the highest increase since 2001. By contrast, the 0.2% growth rate in 2021 was a record low at the height of pandemic restrictions on travel to the U.S., the annual population estimates estimated. show.
This year, immigration has increased by almost 2.8 million people, partly due to a new counting method that includes people admitted for humanitarian reasons.
Net international migration, which according to the Census Bureau refers to any change of residence across U.S. borders, was a crucial part of the change driving residential population growth.
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This photo shows migrants at the southern border encountered in Arizona. (US Border Patrol)
Net international migration accounted for 84% of the country’s increase of 3.3 million people last year.
The increase reflects a continued trend of increasing international migration, with a net increase of 1.7 million in 2022 and 2.3 million in 2023.
“The improved integration of federal immigration data sources has improved our estimation methodology,” said Christine Hartley, assistant division chief for estimates and projections. “This update allows us to better understand how the recent increase in international migration is impacting the country’s overall population growth.”
Last year, U.S. births exceeded deaths by nearly 519,000, which was up from 2021’s historic low of 146,000 but still well below the highs of previous decades.
A Haitian migrant approved for humanitarian parole cheers as he boards a bus taking migrants to the US at the Senda de Vida shelter on August 30, 2022 in Reynosa, Mexico. (Michael Nigro/Getty Images)
The US Census Bureau did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the report.
Together with immigration statistics, the report showed that the South was the fastest growing region in the US in 2024, with 1.8 million residents, more residents than all other regions combined.
Texas saw the largest increase with 562,941 new residents, followed by Florida, which gained 467,347 new residents.
Washington DC had the fastest growth rate in the country at 2.2%.
Migrants wait in line to enter a shelter set up by authorities for migrants as migrants wait for an appointment through U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, May 23, 2023. (Christian Torres Chavez/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Some states – Mississippi, Vermont and West Virginia – lost their populations by 2024, albeit in small numbers ranging from 127 to 516 people.
Those included in this year’s international migration estimates are a group of people who entered the U.S. through the US Biden administration humanitarian parole, which has been harshly criticized by Republicans.
The Migration Policy Institute, based in Washington, DC, reported last week that more than 5.8 million people have been admitted under various humanitarian policies between 2021 and 2024.
But capturing the number of new immigrants is a challenging aspect of U.S. population estimates.
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The agency’s annual calculation of the number of migrants entering the United States in the 1920s was far lower than figures cited by other federal agencies, such as the Congressional Budget Office. The Census Bureau estimated that 1.1 million immigrants entered the United States by 2023, while the Congressional Budget Office estimated 3.3 million people.
Under the revised method, last year’s immigration figures are now recalculated by the Census Bureau to nearly 2.3 million people, or an additional 1.1 million people.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
