Texas Leads US Population Growth With Immigration Driving Gains
Texas saw the largest population increase in the nation between July 2023 and July 2024, according to new Census Bureau data. A significant factor behind this growth was net international migration, which the bureau defines as any residential change crossing US borders.
The Lone Star State gained 562,941 residents during the year, making it the fastest-growing state by numbers. Florida followed with 467,347 new residents, and California came in third with 232,570. Texas remains the second-most populous state, with 31,290,831 residents, trailing only California’s 39,431,263.
📊 U.S. Population Growth Hits Fastest Rate Since 2001 — Over 340M Residents 🇺🇸📈
🔹 2024 Growth: +3.3M residents (+1% growth).
🔹 Immigration Impact: 2.8M new arrivals, accounting for 84% of growth. 🌍✈️
🔹 Top Gainers: Texas (+563K) & Florida (+467K) lead the way. 🌟
🔹… pic.twitter.com/wY7SE3XXMv— BitLogicX (@bytecoderman) December 23, 2024
Census figures released on Dec. 19 highlighted the role of international migration in driving growth nationwide. Texas added 319,569 residents from international migration, ranking third behind Florida (411,322) and California (361,057). Domestic migration also contributed to Texas’ growth, with 85,267 people moving to the state from other parts of the country, surpassing all other states.
Here in our little rural SE Texas town the school population in 2021-2022 was just over 2k students. Now it’s over 11k with 85% of that being Hispanic students. Immigration overload is overwhelming resources. We can thank Colony Ridge for that. And yes we’re pissed.
— Belinda Kalas (@KalasBelinda) December 29, 2024
Meanwhile, states like California (-239,575), New York (-120,917) and Illinois (-56,235) suffered the largest net losses in domestic migration as residents left for other states.
In terms of percentage growth, Washington, D.C., led with a 2.2% increase, followed by Florida at 2%. Texas came in third at 1.8%. Only three states saw their populations shrink: Vermont (-215), Mississippi (-127) and West Virginia (-516). The declines in Vermont and Mississippi stemmed from both negative net domestic migration and more deaths than births, while West Virginia’s loss was due solely to natural decrease.
We should absolutely not be flooded with Indians at all, under any circumstance.
The population should grow, but through much higher birth rates and larger families. Not through more mass immigration.
These same open-borders advocates WANT birth rates in the West to be low.
— Red Texas (@Red_Texas_22) December 27, 2024
Texas also saw the highest natural increase (births exceeding deaths) in the nation, with 158,753 new residents. California and New York followed with 110,466 and 43,701, respectively.
A separate analysis by Smart Asset revealed that several Central Texas cities, including New Braunfels, Georgetown and Conroe, ranked among the top 10 in the nation for population growth.