The Vintage 2023 report released March 14 showed more U.S. counties saw population growth than decline, with the fastest growth occurring in the South and population losses mostly concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest, regions that saw their populations plunge with the pandemic.
In Georgia, 101 of 159 counties grew, according to the estimates. That compares to 83 counties that grew in 2022.
Two Georgia counties landed in the top 10 for annual percent growth in 2023, Jackson and Dawson counties.
Metro Atlanta is the third leading metro area in annual numeric growth with 68,585.
Overall, 60 percent (1,876) of U.S. counties gained population in 2023, an increase from 52 percent (1,649) of counties that grew from 2021 to 2022.
Regions of the country that saw large numbers of people leaving during the early pandemic are starting to recover, Lauren Bowers, who heads the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Branch, said in a news release. At the same time, growth is slowing in some areas of the West, such as Arizona and Idaho.
The report also showed that 80 percent of U.S. counties saw populations grow through immigration. The highest numbers were in Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Harris County, Texas. All counties in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island experienced positive net international migration.
Florida saw growth in 96 percent of its 67 counties. Other states where a large percentage of counties grew were Idaho and Tennessee.
The 10 fastest-growing counties with a population of 20,000 or more were in the South — six in Texas, two in Georgia, and one each in South Carolina and Virginia.
Eight of the 10 counties that led the nation with the highest population increases were in Texas. At the same time, Maricopa County, Arizona, which had been the fastest growing county in 2022, dropped to No. 4, and Polk County, Florida, the only other non-Texas county in the top 10, came in at No. 5.
The fastest-declining…
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