Texas had the largest population growth in the US again in 2024

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Texas led the nation in population growth again in 2024, according to new data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau, marking at least the 14th year in a row that Texas has added more residents than any other state in the country. Texas added over 560,000 residents in 2024, according to the bureau’s latest population estimates. That’s nearly 100,000 more than second-place Florida, and more than twice as many new residents as California, which was third in population growth. The Lone Star State is now home to over 31 million residents, a nearly 2% increase from 2023 and over 7% jump since 2020. Only Idaho and Florida have grown at higher rates since 2020, census data shows.

Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter said that Texas’ relative affordability, coupled with its growing economy and the job opportunities that come with it, have made the state a destination for over a decade. “Relative to other states, Texas is still affordable,” Potter said. “We don’t have income tax, so those factors — the jobs that we have, the affordability and the overall quality of life in Texas — make it an attractive place for people to move to.” Texas’ continued surge comes amid a year of remarkable population growth across the entire country, which the Census Bureau said was driven by an increase in international migration. The 1% growth nationwide marks the fastest annual population growth since 2001. The Census Bureau also, for the first time, included refugees in its count of immigrants in the U.S., though only at a national level. Immigrants accounted for about 84% of the 3.3 million new people in the U.S. in 2024, the bureau said. It was not immediately clear how many of those 2.8 million people were considered refugees, but part of the spike comes from improved methodology within the bureau to track net migration, the agency said. In Texas, more than half the state’s new residents between 2023 and 2024 were international migrants, Census Bureau data shows, the third-most in the nation after Florida and California.