population of usa growth is slowing across much of the country, with a majority of counties and the District of Columbia seeing reduced momentum between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025. The U. S. Census Bureau said Thursday, March 26, 2026, that the slowdown is tied largely to nationwide declines in net international migration during that period. The hit is especially visible in many of the nation’s largest counties and in hundreds of metro areas, where the loss of an international-migration boost changed the direction of local population change.
What the Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 estimates show
The U. S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 population estimates show population growth slowed in a majority of the nation’s 3, 143 counties and the District of Columbia between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025. The bureau also found that among the 2, 066 counties that grew between 2023 and 2024, nearly 8 in 10 saw their growth slow or reverse direction in 2025. In many cases, counties already in decline saw losses accelerate.
Metro areas show a similar pattern. The Census Bureau said 310 of the 387 U. S. metropolitan statistical areas had slower growth between 2024 and 2025 than during the prior year, underscoring how broad the shift has been.
Immigration slowdown ripples through counties and metro areas
The bureau tied the shifts largely to lower levels of net international migration (NIM), which declined nationwide. It said nine out of 10 U. S. counties experienced lower NIM levels between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, compared with the year prior. The remaining one in 10 counties did not see a drop, but the bureau said they did not see an increase either.
Some of the country’s most populous counties experienced the greatest impacts from lower NIM. The Census Bureau explained that these counties typically had more births than deaths, while also posting negative net domestic migration—more people moving out than moving in from elsewhere in the U. S. When reduced NIM is added to that mix, the result is slower growth or, in some cases, population decline. In that sense, the population of usa story is being shaped by how local places balance births, deaths, and two different streams of migration.
The steepest percentage-point declines in population growth rates among metro areas were along the U. S. -Mexico border, the bureau said: Laredo, TX (from 3. 2% in 2023–2024 to 0. 2% from 2024 to 2025); Yuma, AZ (3. 3% to 1. 4%); and El Centro, CA (1. 2% to -0. 7%).
Immediate reactions from the Census Bureau
George M. Hayward, a demographer at the U. S. Census Bureau, pointed to the outsize role international migration plays in big, globally connected counties—especially when domestic moves flow in the opposite direction.
“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 domestic migration, ” Hayward said. “With fewer gains from international migration, these types of counties saw their population growth diminish or even turn into loss. ”
Quick context and what’s next
The Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Program uses current data on births, deaths, and migration to calculate population change since the 2020 Census and produce an annual time series of population estimates. The March 26, 2026 release includes population totals and components of change for U. S. counties, metro and micropolitan areas, plus total population for Puerto Rico municipios and metro/micro areas.
Next steps will center on how local leaders and planners interpret the new estimates—especially in large counties where reduced international migration can flip growth into loss—and how future annual updates track whether the population of usa slowdown persists or stabilizes in the year ahead.
