Utah, Nevada Top List of Fastest-Growing States

While U.S. population growth has slowed in recent, some states are saw rapid expansion as Americans move toward opportunities.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, no state is growing faster than Utah.

Utah’s population increased 2.0 percent to 3.1 million from July 1, 2015, to July 1, 2016.

Following Utah, Nevada (2.0 percent), Idaho (1.8 percent), Florida (1.8 percent) and Washington (1.8 percent) saw the largest percentage increases in population.

In 2016, 37.9 percent of the nation’s population lived in the South and 23.7 percent lived in the West.

North Dakota, which had been the fastest-growing state for the previous four years, mostly from people moving into the state, fell out of the top ten in growth due to a net outflow of migrants to other parts of the country. Its growth slowed from 2.3 percent in the previous year to 0.1 percent.

Nationally, the U.S. population grew by 0.7 percent to 323.1 million. Furthermore, the population of voting-age residents, adults age 18 and over, grew to 249.5 million, making up 77.2 percent of the population in 2016, an increase of 0.9 percent from 2015 (247.3 million).

Eight states lost population between July 1, 2015, and July 1, 2016, including Pennsylvania, New York and Wyoming, all three of which had grown the previous year. Illinois lost more people than any other state (-37,508).

What changes will 2017 bring? We’ll keep you posted.