Report: Wyoming’s population continues to increase at moderate rate

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wyoming’s total resident population grew to 587,618 in July 2024, according to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The annual increase from July 2023 was 2,551 persons, representing a growth of 0.4%.  

This increase was slightly lower than the 0.5% growth recorded in 2023.  

There are two factors that contribute to population change: natural change from vital events and net migration from people’s movement.  

The natural change, calculated as 6,037 births minus 5,634 deaths, was 403.  

The estimated net migration — defined as in-migration minus out-migration — was 2,146, indicating that 2,146 more people moved into Wyoming than moved out of the state between July 2023 and July 2024.

In contrast, for the previous two years, net migration was 3,000 and 2,778, respectively.  

Nationally, the estimated population was 340.1 million in 2024, reflecting an increase of 1% from the previous year. This is the fastest annual growth since 2001, primarily driven by rising international migration.  

The District of Columbia led the nation with a growth rate of 2.2%, followed by Florida at 2%, Texas at 1.8% and Utah at 1.8%.  

Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia experienced population increases. However, three states lost population between 2023 and 2024: Mississippi with -127, Vermont with -215 and West Virginia with -516.  

All neighboring states experienced a faster population increase than Wyoming, which had the seventh lowest growth rate in the country in 2024.  

However, with an addition of 10,774 residents, or 1.9%, Wyoming ranks as the 26th highest in population growth in the U.S. since the 2020 Census.  

Net Migration

After an unprecedented occurrence where the number of deaths outnumbered births during the worst time of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, the natural change has since turned positive in Wyoming.  

“However, due to the continued decline in the fertility rate (the number of births per 1,000 females aged 15–44) and the aging of baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964), the contribution to the population from natural increase is much smaller compared to pre-pandemic periods,” said Dr. Wenlin Liu, chief economist with the Economic Analysis Division.  

The natural change of about 400 annually in recent years is only a fraction of the 1,446 in 2019 and 3,015 a decade ago.  

The state experienced nearly six consecutive years of negative net migration, meaning more people left than moved into the state, between 2014 and 2019 due to the energy downturn. However, the direction of net migration has since reversed.  

“Employment opportunities driven by the energy sector have long been a key factor in Wyoming’s migration trends, but the pandemic significantly influenced this dynamic in recent years,” Liu said.  

This pandemic-induced migration pattern, that is relocation from large cities with high costs to less populated, lower-cost areas, has already slowed down across the rest of the country. However, it appears to have continued in Wyoming, albeit at a decelerating rate.  

Net migration comprises net domestic migration and net international migration. The estimated net domestic migration of 861 in 2024 was less than half of the figure for 2023.  

Due to the U.S. Census Bureau’s change in methodology, incorporating administrative data on immigrant cases from the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and the Office of Homeland Security, the estimated net international migration for the state was 1,037 in 2023 and 1,285 in 2024, compared to the annual figure of around 500 before the pandemic.  

Similar to the U.S., Wyoming’s economy continued to expand in 2024.  

As of June 2024, Wyoming’s unemployment rate was 2.9%, the lowest since summer 2008, and it was much lower than the U.S. average of 4.1%.  

Despite a moderate decrease in the mining industry, the state’s total employment in June was 0.9% higher than the previous year, thanks to robust growth in the construction industry and a rebound in the job market for federal, state, and local government sectors, including higher education, public K–12 education and public hospitals.

The report is attached below:

NOTE: AI tools assisted in the publication of this report.