The US Census Bureau has revealed that the American population grew by one percent year-on-year in 2024, an increase of 3.3 million people driven by net international migration that takes the total number of US citizens past 340 million for the first time.
The agency reports that this is the fastest rate of growth since 2001 and represents a huge increase from the 0.1 percent total recorded in 2021 when the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill.
“An annual growth rate of 1.0 percent is higher than what we’ve seen over recent years but well within historical norms,” said Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Census Bureau’s Population Division.
“What stands out is the diminishing role of natural increase over the last five years, as net international migration has become the primary driver of the nation’s growth.”
This year’s increase takes the total proportion of the population old enough to vote to 78.5 percent, equating to 267 million people, while the total number of American children (defined as those younger than 18) declined marginally by 0.2 percent to 73.1 million.
The data reveals that the American South remains the nation’s fast-growing region, adding nearly 1.8 million more residents this calendar year to record a population of 132.7 million, with the largest increases seen in Texas and Florida.
Overall, California remains America’s most populous state with 39.4 million people living there, followed by Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan.
Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia (DC) experienced population growth in 2024, with nine states – Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Washington – adding more than 100,000 people.
But the population of Puerto Rico continued to fall, albeit at a slower rate than in recent years, falling by just 0.2 percent to 3,203,295, compared with drops of 1.3 percent and 0.5 percent in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Births meanwhile outnumbered deaths in 33 states and DC, with the highest natural increases seen in Texas (158,753), California (110,466) and New York (43,701).
The remaining 17 states saw more deaths than births, with Pennsylvania (-9,311), West Virginia (-7,844) and Florida (-7,321) experiencing the largest natural decreases.
