UTAH, Dec. 21, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — In a year of declining birth rates and international migration, Utah tied with Montana for the second largest population growth of any state, topped only by Idaho.
The Utah and Idaho population growth rate came in at 1.7 percent, according to 2021 information released by the United States Census Bureau. Idaho came in at 2.9 percent growth, the report states.
At the other end of the spectrum, the population of the District of Columbia dropped by 2.9 percent, with New York experiencing the second largest decline, at 1.6 percent.
Overall, the U.S. population increased by 0.1 percent.
“The U.S. population grew at a slower rate in 2021 than in any other year since the founding of the nation, based on historical decennial censuses and annual population estimates,” says a Census report released Tuesday.
The report said the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the slower growth the country has experienced in recent years.
“The year 2021 is the first time since 1937 that the U.S. population grew by fewer than one million people, featuring the lowest numeric growth since at least 1900, when the Census Bureau began annual population estimates.
“Apart from the last few years, when population growth slowed to historically low levels, the slowest rate of growth in the 20th century was from 1918-1919 amid the influenza pandemic and World War I.
“Slower population growth has been a trend in the United States for several years, the result of decreasing fertility and net international migration, combined with increasing mortality due to an aging population.
“In other words, since the mid-2010’s, births and net international migration have been declining at the same time deaths have been increasing. The collective impact of these trends is slower population growth.”
This trend has been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a historically slow population increase in 2021, the report says.
