U.S. population grew at a historically low rate in 2021, Census Bureau reports

The United States population grew at a dramatically slower rate in 2021 compared to past years.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the country’s population grew 0.1% based on population estimates released Tuesday. Experts attest the slower growth to the pandemic that the world has been experiencing over the past two years.

This year is the first year since 1937 that the U.S. population has grown by less than one million people. Prior to this past year, the slowest growth rate was in 1918-1919, which was attributed to World War I and the Spanish Flu. However, slower population growth has been trending in the U.S. for many years.

This trend, outside of the pandemic, is due to the number of births and net international migration decreasing, as deaths increase simultaneously. The pandemic has only amplified the impact of these factors. However, more comprehensive data will not be released by the Census Bureau until the new year.

According to the data that has been released, Idaho and Utah saw the largest population increase from 2020-2021, while the District of Columbia and New York saw the largest decline. Total population growth totaled 392,665.