Census Data Shows, US Population Growth, Slowed to a Crawl in 2021.
According to census data released in September, the population of the United States grew more slowly in 2021 than in any other year on record.
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The U.S. Census Bureau has attributed the record low to the coronavirus pandemic, economic shutdowns and lower numbers of migrants and births.
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Al Jazeera reports that in 2021, the U.S. population grew by about 393,000, or just 0.1%, a historic low.
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Luke Rogers, chief of the Census Bureau’s population estimates branch said that this rate is slower than during the influenza pandemic, World War I and the Great Depression.
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Luke Rogers, chief of the Census Bureau’s population estimates branch said that this rate is slower than during the influenza pandemic, World War I and the Great Depression.
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The slow rate of growth can be attributed to decreased net international migration, decreased fertility, and increased mortality due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Census Bureau, via Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera points out that the census data also showed that the U.S. poverty rate had risen from a 60-year low following pandemic-related economic shutdowns.
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The U.S. has also become more diverse as the white population declines.
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The U.S. population has been in decline since 2016 due to a variety of factors, including decreasing fertility and increasing mortality among an aging population.
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According to the Census Bureau's estimates, births outnumbered deaths by only 148,000, the smallest difference in over 80 years.
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U.S. natural increase was already at a low ebb prior to COVID with the fertility rate hitting a new record low each year and deaths steadily rising due to the population aging, Kenneth Johnson, University of New Hampshire demographer, via Al Jazeera
