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 marks a shift in demographic trends across the country, with fewer counties experiencing growth and more seeing declines or reversals compared to previous years.
Of the more than two thousand counties that grew from mid-2023 to mid-2024, nearly eight out of ten saw their growth slow or reverse direction by mid-2025. Many areas already losing residents experienced even faster declines. Among metropolitan statistical areas (metro areas), over three hundred out of nearly four hundred had slower growth during this period than in the prior year. The steepest percentage point drops occurred along the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas; Yuma, Arizona; and El Centro, California.
A major factor behind these shifts was a nationwide decline in net international migration (NIM). Nine out of ten U.S. counties experienced lower NIM levels between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025 compared to the previous year. Counties that did not see a drop also did not see an increase.
Some of the largest counties felt these effects most strongly due to their reliance on international migration as a source of new residents while often losing people through domestic migration within the United States. “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,” explained George M. Hayward, a Census Bureau demographer. “With fewer gains from international migration, these types of counties saw their population growth diminish or even turn into loss.”
Geographically, many fast-growing counties were located along the southeast coast—especially Florida and neighboring states—and on outer edges of large metro areas such as those seen prominently in Texas. Of larger-population counties (20,000 or more), nine out of ten fastest-growing were found in southern states.
Growth rates for metro areas dropped from an average annual increase of about one percent between mid-2023 and mid-2024 down to just over half a percent by mid-2025—a change attributed mainly to reductions in NIM rather than changes from births or deaths.
Looking ahead, additional data releases are scheduled for June with breakdowns by age groupings as well as race and Hispanic origin at various geographic levels including Puerto Rico municipios.
