Utah had highest growth rate in the nation over past decade, Census Bureau estimates

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — At 17.6%, Utah had the highest growth rate in the nation over the past ten years, according to new 2020 estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

That puts Utah's population at 3,249,879 as of July 1, 2020. That's up from Utah's 2010 census count of 2,763,885. All of Utah's neighbors, except Wyoming, saw massive population growth. Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado are all in the top seven of states with the highest growth. Wyoming grew 3.3% during the same timeframe. Utah is estimated to have more than 5.8 million people by 2065, according to the University of Utah.

The West and the South were the highest-growing regions in the country, while five states east of the Mississippi River (West Virginia, Illinois, Connecticut, Vermont, and New York) actually lost people.

UTAH POPULATION BY YEAR (2010-20)

• 2010- 2,775,413
• 2011- 2,814,797
• 2021- 2,854,146
• 2013 - 2,898,773
• 2014 - 2,938,327
• 2015 - 2,983,626
• 2016 - 3,044,241
• 2017 - 3,103,540
• 2018 - 3,155,153
• 2019 - 3,203,383
• 2020 - 3,249,879

Mallory Bateman with the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah broke down the U.S. Census Bureau's statistics, saying:

If we assume a linear growth path, we can get an estimate for April 1, 2020 from the new Census Bureau data. This framing provides a population of 3,238,255 in Utah on Census Day. This translates to slower growth (474,370 new Utahns or 17.2% growth) than in the past several decades. Analysis of historical decennial data indicated that both the 1990s and 2000s added more than 500,000 residents each. This growth resulted in a 29.6% growth rate between 1990 and 2000, and 23.8% between 2000 and 2010.

The South (driven mainly by Texas, Florida, and Georgia) and the West were home to the most growth this decade. Nationwide, the population grew by 6.7%, which equates to over 20 million people. Between the 2000 and 2010 decennial censuses, the national growth rate was 9.7%. With an aging population and decreasing migration throughout the decade (and since the 1970s), this relatively low growth rate is not surprising.

Year-over-year change in these estimates indicates a 1.5% increase in Utah’s population between 2019 and 2020. This pace of growth is consistent with annual growth rates throughout the decade, which have ranged from 1.4% to 2.0%. Nationwide, the population grew by only 0.4% between 2019 and 2020. The Northeast had a small decline, the Midwest did not change, and the South and West increased slightly."

STATES IN ORDER BY FASTEST GROWTN (April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2020)

1. 17.6% - Utah
2. 16.8% - Texas
3. 16.5% - Idaho
4. 16.2% - Nevada
5. 16.1% - Arizona
6. 15.6% - Florida
7. 15.5% - Colorado
8. 14.4% - Washington
9. 13.8% - North Dakota
10. 12.8% - South Carolina
11. 11.2% - North Carolina
12. 10.7% - Oregon
13. 10.6% - Georgia
14. 9.9% - Delaware
15. 9.6% - South Dakota
16. 9.2% - Montana
17. 8.5% - Tennessee
18. 7.4% - Virginia
19. 6.7% - Minnesota
20. 6.1% - Nebraska
21. 6.1% - Oklahoma
22. 5.7% - California
23. 5.3% - Massachusetts
24. 4.9% - Maryland
25. 4.2% - Indiana
26. 3.9% - Arkansas
27. 3.8% - Iowa
28. 3.8% - New Hampshire
29. 3.4% - Hawaii
30. 3.3% - Wyoming
31. 3.2% - Kentucky
32. 3.0% - Alabama
33. 2.9% - Alaska
34. 2.7% - Missouri
35. 2.6% - Wisconsin
36. 2.5% - Louisiana
37. 2.3% - New Mexico
38. 2.1% - Kansas
39. 1.6% - Maine
40. 1.4% - Ohio
41. 1.0% - New Jersey
42. 0.8% - Michigan
43. 0.6% - Pennsylvania
44. 0.4% - Rhode Island
45. 0.0% - Mississippi
46. -0.2% - New York
47. -0.5 - Connecticut
48. -0.4% - Vermont
49. -1.9% - Illinois
50. -3.7% - West Virginia

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You can learn more about the 2020 census estimates here.