The U.S. added fewer than 400,000 people last year. The last year with fewer than 1 million new people was 1937.<\/b>
\nThe U.S. population grew slower than ever last year, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. A combination of dropping birth rates, higher deaths rates amid the COVID pandemic and limited immigration meant the country added only 392,665 people between July 2020 and July 2021. That 0.1% increase is the lowest recorded since the nation was founded in 1776. Before this year, the last time the U.S. failed to add 1 million people was 1937, the heart of the Great Depression. The U.S. growth rate has been declining for years, but the latest drop even surprised experts. \u201cI was expecting low growth but nothing this low,\u201d said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. For the first time in recorded American history, the U.S. gained more people through immigration than through births outnumbering deaths, according to the Census Bureau. The natural increase of 148,043 was dwarfed by the migration increase of 244,622. The data was estimated between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021. In that time, at least 476,100 Americans died from COVID-19, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Governments also closed borders in response to the pandemic, limiting possibilities for immigration. \u201cOf course most of this is COVID, but not all of it,\u201d said Kenneth Johnson, a University of New Hampshire demographer. \u201cU.S. natural increase was already at a low ebb prior to COVID with the fertility rate hitting a new record low each year and deaths steadily rising due to the population aging.\u201d New York\u2019s population declined by 1.6%, the highest percentage of any state. Washington, D.C. was the only location to top it, as the nation\u2019s capital saw it\u2019s population decline by 2.9% New York also lost more people than any other state, with the Empire State population dropping by 319,020, according to Census Bureau estimates. California, which has about twice as many people, was No.2 in raw population decline, losing 261,902 people. It was the first time in recorded history that California\u2019s population declined. Those people appear to have gone to the Mountain West. Idaho, Utah, Montana and Arizona saw their populations increase by the highest percentages, with Idaho leading the way at 2.9% and the other three all falling between 1.4% and 1.7%. Texas and Florida led the way in raw population gain, with the Lone Star State topping 300,000 new people and Florida adding more than 200,000. With News Wire Services<\/p>\n