US population growth at lowest rate in pandemic’s 1st year
FILE - In this Aug. 22, 2019, file photo, people walk through New York's Times Square.[AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File]
Already declining U.S. population growth dipped to its lowest rate since the nation’s founding during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s because the coronavirus curtailed immigration, delayed pregnancies and killed hundreds of thousands of U.S. residents. Figures released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau show the U.S. grew by only 0.1% with only an additional 392,665 added to the U.S. population, from July 2020 to July 2021.
The population estimates are derived from calculating the number of births, deaths and migration in the U.S. For the first time, international migration surpassed natural increases from births outnumbering deaths. There was a net increase of almost 245,000 residents from international migration but only around 148,000 from natural increase.