Immigrants account for US population growth

PEW RESEARCH CENTER

After a historically low rate of change between 2020 and 2021, the U.S. resident population increased by 0.4%, or 1,256,003, to 333,287,557 in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2022 national and state population estimates and components of change released Dec. 22.

Immigrants appears to have driven much of the growth reversing a trend that began at the beginning of the pandemic.

"There was a sizeable uptick in population growth last year compared to the prior year’s historically low increase,” said Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Population Division at the Census Bureau. “A rebound in net international migration, coupled with the largest year-over-year increase in total births since 2007, is behind this increase.”

Net international migration — the number of people moving in and out of the country — added 1,010,923 people between 2021 and 2022 and was the primary driver of growth. This represents 168.8% growth over 2021 totals of 376,029 – an indication that migration patterns are returning to pre-pandemic levels. Positive natural change (births minus deaths) increased the population by 245,080.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia saw positive net international migration with California (125,715), Florida (125,629) and Texas (118,614) having the largest gains.

For the third straight year, California shows a decline in population created mainly by domestic migration; people leaving the state to other states. 

Between July 2021 and July 2022, the number of Californians dropped from 39,142,991 to 39,029,342 — a loss of about 114,000 people, the new data shows. There were more births than deaths in the state, and 125,715 immigrants made their homes here in that one-year span. Most of the population decline was explained by the 343,230 people who moved to other U.S. states.

Florida was the fastest growing state with a population increase of 1.9% to 22,244,823 between 2021 and 2022.

Despite the population decline, California is still the most populous state with 39,029,342 residents, far more than the second most populous state, Texas, which has only 30,029,572.

Although the Census Bureau did not state the countries of origin for 2022's immigrants, according to Pew Research Center estimates, Asia is the second-largest region of birth for U.S. immigrants, after the Americas, and since 2013 India and China have been the leading origin countries, displacing Mexico. Looking forward, arrivals from Asia are projected to comprise a greater share of all immigrants, becoming the largest foreign-born group by 2055. 

During 2023, the Census Bureau will release estimates of the 2022 population for counties, cities and towns, and metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas, as well as national, state and county population estimates by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin.

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