The Influx of migrants Immigration to the U.S. in 2024 drove population growth to its highest level in 23 years as the country’s population surpassed 340 million, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report Thursday.
Between 2023 and 2024, the U.S. population grew by nearly 1%, the highest increase since 2001. By contrast, the 0.2% growth rate in 2021 was a record low at the height of pandemic-related travel restrictions in the U.S., according to the annual population estimate show.
This year, immigration increased by almost 2.8 million people, partly due to a new counting method that also includes people admitted for humanitarian reasons.
Net international migration, which refers to any change of residence across U.S. borders, according to the Census Bureau, was a key factor in the change that fueled residential population growth.
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This photo shows migrants encountered at the southern border in Arizona. (US Border Patrol)
Net international migration accounted for 84% of the country’s increase of 3.3 million people last year.
The increase reflects a continued trend of increasing international migration, with a net increase of 1.7 million in 2022 and 2.3 million in 2023.
“Improved integration of federal immigration data sources has improved our estimation methodology,” said Christine Hartley, deputy division director for estimates and forecasts. “This update allows us to better understand how the recent surge in international migration is affecting the country’s overall population growth.”
Last year, U.S. births exceeded deaths by nearly 519,000, up from the historic low of 146,000 in 2021 but still well below the highs of previous decades.
A Haitian migrant who was granted humanitarian parole cheers as he boards a bus carrying migrants to the U.S. at the Senda de Vida shelter on August 30, 2022 in Reynosa, Mexico. (Michael Nigro/Getty Images)
The U.S. Census Bureau did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the report.
Along with immigration statistics, the report showed that the South was the fastest-growing region of the U.S. in 2024, adding 1.8 million people, more residents than all other regions combined.
Texas saw the largest increase with 562,941 new residents, followed by Florida with 467,347 new residents.
Washington, DC had the highest growth rate in the country at 2.2%.
Migrants line up to enter a shelter set up by authorities for migrants as migrants wait for an appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, May 23, 2023. (Christian Torres Chavez/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Some states – Mississippi, Vermont and West Virginia – lost population in 2024, albeit in small amounts ranging from 127 to 516 people.
This year’s international migration estimates include a group of people who entered the United States via the United States Biden administration Parole on humanitarian grounds, which was sharply criticized by Republicans.
The Washington, D.C.-based Migration Policy Institute reported last week that over 5.8 million people were admitted under various humanitarian efforts between 2021 and 2024.
However, measuring the number of new immigrants is a difficult aspect of U.S. population estimates.
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The office’s annual calculation of how many migrants entered the United States in the 2020s is far below the numbers cited by other federal agencies such as the Congressional Budget Office. The Census Bureau estimated that 1.1 million immigrants entered the United States in 2023, while the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate was 3.3 million people.
With the revised methodology, the Census Bureau now recalculates last year’s immigration numbers to nearly 2.3 million people, or an additional 1.1 million people.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
