Immigration and declines in death cause uptick in US population growth this year

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December 19th, 2023

This Sept. 26, 2005 photo shows a view of downtown Savannah, Ga., from Drayton Tower's northwest corner. South Carolina and Florida were the two fastest-growing states in the U.S., as the South region dominated population gains in 2023, and the U.S. growth rate ticked upward slightly from the depths of the pandemic due to a drop in deaths, according to estimates released Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023 by the U.S. Census Bureau. (Stephen Morton/AP Photo)

Immigration powered population gains in the United States for a second year in a row and — coupled with a drop in the number of deaths from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic — caused an uptick in the U.S. growth rate in 2023, according to estimates released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The United States added 1.6 million people, more than two-thirds of which came from international migration, bringing the nation’s population total to 334.9 million people. Population gains or losses come from births outpacing deaths, or vice versa, along with migration.

After immigration declined in the latter half of last decade and dropped even lower amid pandemic restrictions at the start of this decade, the number of immigrants last year bounced back to almost 1 million people. The trend continued this year, growing to 1.1 million people, the highest number of immigrants in more than two decades, according to Census Bureau figures compiled by William Frey, a demographer at The Brookings Institution.

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