For the first time in more than 60 years, Florida is now the fastest-growing state in the country, according to data released by the Census Bureau on Thursday.
Florida's population grew to 22,244,823 between 2021 and 2022, an increase of 1.9% in the span of one year. It's an impressive feat considering that Florida is already the third-most populous state in the union. The state's growth rate had to be significant to cinch the top spot out of all 50 states, something Florida hasn't done since 1957.
Census data shows that Florida's population has increased every year since 1946, even during periods when national population growth slowed. Today, the state's population is more than nine times larger than it was in 1946.
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"While Florida has often been among the largest-gaining states, this was the first time since 1957 that Florida has been the state with the largest percent increase in population," said Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Population Estimates Branch of the Census Bureau.
The rest of the country is growing too, in a turnaround since the pandemic. After historically low population growth in 2020 and 2021, the U.S. grew at a rate of 0.4% to 333,287,557 residents in 2022, the Census Bureau said. The growth was mostly attributed to immigration, although there were 245,080 more births than deaths in the U.S. in the last year.
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"There was a sizeable uptick in population growth last year compared to the prior year’s historically low increase," Wiler said. "A rebound in net international migration, coupled with the largest year-over-year increase in total births since 2007, is behind this increase."
The South, already the most populous area of the country, was the fastest-growing and largest-gaining region in the U.S., Census data shows. There was a net gain of 414,740 immigrants from foreign countries in the region, as well as 867,935 new residents from other U.S. states, for a total of 1,282,675 new residents.
The Northeast and Midwest each lost population as residents moved to the South and the West. While Florida was the fastest-growing state, Texas was the largest-gaining, reaching a total population of 30,029,572 million. Texas and California are now the only two states with a population exceeding 30 million.
