The United States registers the lowest population growth in its history due to a pandemic and fall in migration

U.S it registered the lowest population growth in its history, due to the fall in migration, the increase in deaths due in part to the pandemic and the decrease in the birth rate, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

Between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021, the population grew 0.1% (392,665 people), “the lowest rate since the nation was founded,” the agency said in a statement.

“Population growth has slowed for years due to lower birth rates and declining net international migration (the difference between the number of people entering and leaving the country), while death rates are increasing due to the aging of the population, ”says Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the population department of the Census Bureau.

“Now, with the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, this combination has caused a historically slow growth rate,” he adds.

Despite the fact that immigration has decreased during those 12 months, net international migration was 244,622 people, which for the first time exceeds the so-called natural or vegetative growth (the difference between births and deaths), which stood at 148,043 the agency reported.

The pandemic has caused delays in calculating the numbers, so the Census Bureau’s population report has used data from the 2020 census, which is done once a decade, along with other sources, such as birth records. , deaths and immigration records.

Between 2020 and 2021, 33 states saw population increases and 17 states and the District of Columbia lost population, 11 of them more than 10,000 people, says the agency, which considers it “a historically large number.”

In a separate analysis, the study showed that Texas had the largest population increase at 1.1%, primarily due to national migration to the state and increased birth rates.

New York showed the largest drop (1.6%), mainly due to national migration, and Puerto Rico lost 0.5%.

Three states have more than 20 million residents: California (39,237,836), Texas (29,527,941) and Florida (21,781,128).

-Pandemic and migration-

The pandemic affected migration to and from the United States, causing the lowest levels in decades, adds the Census in another analysis.

Until June 2021, the land borders between the United States, Mexico and Canada remained closed to non-essential travel and three-quarters of US consulates abroad, which issue visas, also.

Net international migration (less than 250,000) contrasts with the record of the last decade (1,049,000 between 2015 and 2016) and the 477,000 registered between 2019 and 2020.

Florida, Texas, New York, California, and Massachusetts host the majority of migrants from abroad almost every year. All five registered drops between 2015 and 2021, but it was almost -50% between 2020 and 2021.

According to an analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), carried out using data from the Census Bureau’s population survey, the number of immigrants (legal and illegal) in the United States reached 46 in November of this year. 2 million, the highest in the country’s history.

As a percentage, immigrants represented 14.2% of the population in November, adds the CIS, a non-profit organization that studies immigrant communities in the country.

The proportion of immigrants in the population has tripled since 1970 and has almost doubled since 1990.