AUSTIN, Texas — The saying "everything is bigger in Texas" apparently includes population. According to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas has the fastest growing population of any state in the country.
According to the yearly Census created by the U.S. Census Bureau, which shows the growth patterns throughout the country, Texas had the largest increase of people moving to the state between 2021 and 2022.
This last year's census is important in the regard that there was little change in the population during the peak year of the COVID-19 pandemic – between 2020 and 2021 – indicating that the year showed positive recovery growth.
With an influx of 470,708 people flocking to the Lone Star State last year, Texas secured the No. 1 spot for the "largest-gaining state in the nation." The almost half a million new residents increased the total population in Texas to 30,029,572, making Texas the second state to reach over 30 million people.
The only other state with as many residents is California, which has a population that clocks in at 39,029,342. Speaking of California, the Golden State is one of 18 states that lost more people than it gained last year. Throughout the calendar year, the state saw a decline of 113,649 total people.
The Census marked three distinct points of growth for each state, and Texas excelled in all three. In Texas, net domestic migration, or the difference between the amount of people moving in and out of a state, was 230,961; net international migration, or the movement of people between the U.S. and countries abroad, totaled to 118,614; and natural increase, or the difference between the number of births and deaths in a region, was 118,159.
In addition to Texas being the fastest-growing population, the whole South reached No. 1 for the "fastest growing region." The South as a whole saw an increase of 1.1% in the population, or an increase of 1,370,163 people, to create a total populous of 128,716,192 people living in the southern parts of the U.S.
Out of the three distinct points of growth that the Census marks, the South excelled in two of them: net domestic migration was 867,935, and net international migration was 414,740 people.
Boomtown is KVUE's series covering the explosive growth in Central Texas. For more Boomtown stories, head to KVUE.com/Boomtown.