The U.S. Census Bureau announced on Mar. 26 that population growth slowed in most of the nation’s 3,143 counties and the District of Columbia between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025, according to its Vintage 2025 population estimates.
This slowdown is significant because it reflects shifting migration patterns and demographic changes across the country. The data show that lower levels of net international migration were a key factor behind the reduced growth rates.
Among the counties that experienced growth from 2023 to 2024, nearly eight out of ten saw their growth slow or reverse direction in the following year. Counties already experiencing decline often saw those losses accelerate. Metropolitan areas also reported slower expansion; for example, Laredo, Texas’s population growth rate dropped from 3.2% to just 0.2%, while Yuma, Arizona fell from a gain of 3.3% to only a gain of 1.4%. El Centro, California shifted from growing by over one percent to losing residents.
The Census Bureau attributed these trends largely to decreases in net international migration (NIM), which declined nationwide for nine out of ten U.S. counties compared with the previous year. George M. Hayward, a demographer at the bureau said: “The nation’s largest counties like those in the New York metro area are often international migration hubs, gaining large numbers of international migrants and losing people that move to other parts of the country via domestic migration.” He continued: “With fewer gains from international migration, these types of counties saw their population growth diminish or even turn into loss.”
Despite overall slowing trends nationally, many fast-growing counties remained concentrated along Florida’s southeast coast as well as Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia—particularly on metro area edges such as those found in Texas.
In addition to reporting declines due primarily to lower NIM levels rather than natural increase or domestic moves alone—the number of U.S. counties with more deaths than births held steady at about two-thirds—domestic migration continued redistributing people away from large urban centers toward less populous areas.
Looking ahead, new demographic breakdowns by age group and race will be released by the Census Bureau later this year for further analysis.
