Report: Washington experiencing 6th highest population growth in US

At a time when the U.S. population is experiencing its slowest growth rate since the Great Depression, Washington is experiencing the 6th largest population growth in the nation, according to a new report by HireAHelper.

The report found that between 2015 and 2020, Washington’s population grew by 7.3% — an increase of an estimated 526,325 people for a total population of 7,693,612.

Meanwhile, the country’s population growth rate has decelerated to a 0.35% increase, the report said. As for why, researchers attribute the slow-down to a combination of factors.

“Population experts blame the slowing growth rate on three big trends: families across the country are aging and having fewer kids, immigration policies have tightened up American borders, and economic hardships extending back to the dot-com crash and the Great Recession have shifted priorities away from marriage and families,” researches wrote in the report.

The U.S. birth rate has been declining for six years. It slowed to 11.4 births per 1,000 people in 2020, resulting in the fewest births since 1979, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The report said the biggest decrease was between 2019 and 2020. During that time, the birth rate slowed by 4%, twice as fast as the average slowdown since 2014.

The growth in immigration peaked in 2015 and remained stagnant in 2016 at 3.3 immigrants per 1,000 residents, the report said. Since 2017, the rate has steadily declined. The number of immigrants was down to 1.5 per 1,000 in 2020, researchers say.

Results for Washington’s neighbors are mixed.

Oregon reported a healthy 10.6% increase, while Idaho, considered one of the fastest growing states in the nation, reported a 17.3% increase. Between 2010 and 2020, California posted a 6.1% increase. However, for the first time in more than a century, the state reported a population drop of 0.46% — an estimated 182,083 people — during 2020.