Census shows Idaho’s population increased in 2021. Are we the fastest-growing state?
For the fifth straight year, Idaho is No. 1 in the nation.
In terms of population growth percentage, that is.
The number of people in the Gem State increased by 2.9% from 2020 to 2021, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates released Tuesday. That’s the highest percentage among the 50 states and Washington, D.C.
The next closest states were Utah (1.7%) and Montana (1.7%). Arizona and South Carolina rounded out the top five by increasing their populations by 1.4% and 1.2%, respectively.
Idaho’s population grew from 1,847,772 to 1,900,923 overall. That increase of 53,151 in raw numbers ranked No. 9 nationally.
The largest driver of Idaho’s population boost was people moving from other states. According to the Census Bureau, Idaho had a net domestic migration of 48,876. Those estimates are based on the population as of July 1 each year.
Nationally, the three states with the biggest increase in total population numbers were Texas, Florida and Arizona.
The five places with the greatest percentage decrease were Washington, D.C. (-2.9%), New York (-1.6%), Illinois (-0.9%), Hawaii (-0.7%) and California (-0.7%). Texas and Florida were the only two of the six most populous states to gain population in the past year.
Eleven states had population decreases of more than 10,000 people as the coronavirus pandemic continued to plague the U.S., which the Census Bureau says “is a historically large number of states to lose population in (a) year.”
“The trend away from large urban areas impacted some of the largest states, including California, New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois, as together they lost almost three-quarters of a million people,” an Idaho Department of Labor news release said.
The Census Bureau estimated that the entire U.S. population grew by only 392,665, or 0.1%. That’s the lowest rate since the country’s founding.
In April, the Census Bureau announced that Idaho was the second fastest-growing state in the country in the past decade. From 2010 to 2020, Idaho’s population increased 17.3%, second only to Utah’s 18.4% increase. Meridian was ranked No. 4 on a list of the fastest-growing cities in the country.
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 11:21 AM with the headline "Census shows Idaho’s population increased in 2021. Are we the fastest-growing state?."
