Idaho population growth strongest since 2008

January 10, 2016

Idaho’s population grew by 1.8 percent between mid-2015 and mid-2016, the third strongest increase of all states and 1.1 percentage point ahead of the national growth rate. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the state’s population was 1,683,140 as of July 1, 2016, an estimated increase of more than 30,300. This was the strongest increase since 2008 when the population grew 1.9 percent with an increase of 29,200. Idaho’s population growth can be attributed to a high birth rate and domestic migration, which accounted for 90 percent of the state’s population growth. Idaho ranked fifth in the country for in-migration as nearly 19,000 people moved from other states and countries between mid-2015 and mid-2016. The state’s birth rate was 13.7 births per thousand women, the seventh highest in the country. Utah’s population exceeded 3 million as it became the nation’s fastest growing state with a 2 percent increase in population, followed by Nevada, Idaho, Florida, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, District of Columbia and Texas. Eight states – Mississippi, Wyoming, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, West Virginia and Illinois – lost population. From 1990 through 2010 Idaho posted annual population growth rates of more than 1 percent, exceeding 2 percent a year during the mid-2000s expansion and 3 percent in 1993 and 1994. In 2012 growth slid to just 0.7 percent, matching the national rate. In 2013 Idaho’s rate rose to 1 percent while the national rate remained at 0.7 percent. Idaho continued to be above the national rate at 1.8 percent compared with 0.7 percent nationally.