A number of the top ten states with the fastest population growth from 2020 to 2021 were neighboring Wyoming, but Cowboy State was far behind.
Half of the top ten states, including the top four states, with the highest annual percentage population growth were in the West: Idaho led the nation at 2.9%, followed by Utah, Montana and Arizona, while Nevada ranked ninth. Wyoming’s annual growth ranked 22nd in the United States.
Wyoming’s total resident population increased “slightly” by 1,536 people to a total of 578,803 in July 2021, according to estimates released last week by the US Census Bureau.
The growth can mainly be attributed to the net migration of around 1,300 people. This positive net migration means that 1,368 more residents moved to Wyoming than left the state between 2020 and 2021. The rest of the growth comes from the difference between births and deaths. Wyoming had a “natural increase” of about 170, meaning there were 170 more births than deaths.
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“Wyoming’s natural population increase has slowed significantly over the past two years,” Amy Bittner, senior economist with the State of Wyoming’s Division of Economic Analysis, said in a news release. “COVID-19 may have prompted more people to move to Wyoming than to leave the state.”
COVID-19 is also largely responsible for changes in employment rates, which affect demographic shifts.
From July 2020 to July 2021, the state’s employment rate increased by 3.1%, after July 2020 was “one of the months most economically impacted by COVID-19.”
Total employment in July 2020 was among the lowest since 2005.
The rebound in employment from July 2020 to July 2021 “shows that Wyoming is slowly recovering from some of the economic impacts of the pandemic,” read a press release from the Economic Analysis Division.
“Job opportunities drive migration into an area, which is generally true for Wyoming,” Bittner said.
In the United States as a whole, the population grew at the slowest rate in the country’s history over the past year: 0.1% or 392,665 people.
Last year marked the first time since 1937 that the US population grew by less than a million people. It is also the lowest numerical growth since 1900.
Slow population growth nationwide is due to declining net international migration, declining birth rates and increased mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the statement. hurry. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have lost population over the past year.
“Wyoming is experiencing some of the same issues as the United States with respect to natural population growth, declining birth rates and increasing aging of the population,” Bittner said in the release. “Since Wyoming’s natural population increase (births minus deaths) was flat over the year, the majority of the state’s population increase came from people moving into the state. (positive net migration).”
Data from a decade tells a similar story.
Cowboy State’s slow growth relative to its neighbors isn’t just a product of the pandemic — Wyoming’s population has also grown the slowest of any western state in the past decade.
Wyoming has had the seventh slowest population growth in the United States, with about 13,000 residents since 2010, for a growth rate of 2.3%.
Over the decade, the population of the United States increased by 7.1%. The Western region, which includes Wyoming, would have increased by 9.2%.
According to Wyoming Chief Economist Wenlin Liu, the past 10 years have seen the state’s slowest growth rate since the 1980s, the Star-Tribune previously reported. As of the 2010 census, Wyoming’s population had grown about 14.1% since 2000.
Liu attributed Wyoming’s slow growth rate to the economic downturn in the energy sector since the mid-2010s. In 2015 and 2016, according to state data, 9,200 mining jobs were lost. lost.
“The nationwide economy, especially in neighboring states such as Colorado, Utah and Idaho, has experienced strong expansion, which has drawn many energy workers and residents from Wyoming to second half of the decade,” Liu said in an April press release.
About 11,800 more people have left Wyoming than they have moved into the state since 2010. According to state data, there have been about 72,000 births compared to 47,000 deaths in Wyoming since the last census.
Utah had the biggest boom in the country, growing 18.4% since 2010. Idaho and North Dakota had the second and fourth fastest population growth, increasing 17.3% and 15.8%. Only three states have seen their populations decline over the decade
More accurate census data will continue to be released over the coming months.
Follow state political reporter Victoria Eavis on Twitter @Victoria_Eavis