(The Center Square) – Oregon’s population isn’t shrinking as much as California’s, or growing like its neighbors in the Pacific Northwest.
That’s the upshot of the latest numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau Thursday.
Oregon saw a population decline of 16,164 people over Fiscal Year 2022, or.38% of the state’s population, with a current estimate of 4,240,137 people.
It also had more deaths than births, at 46,232 deaths to 41,143 births in FY 2022. That contributed to the state’s population decline to the tune of 5,089 people.
The losses in FY2022 came close to wiping out Oregon’s population gains of the previous two years. The state now has a net 2,846 more residents than it did in FY2019.
This contrasted positively with fellow West Coast state California and negatively with its neighbors in the Pacific Northwest.
California saw a net decline of 113,649 residents in FY2022, or .29 percent of its population. It had the second-largest population loss of the year for any of the 50 states in raw numbers and the tenth-largest decline by percentage of the population.
In contrast, Washington scored higher in the population growth department and Idaho scored much higher.
Washington saw a population increase of 45,041 people over FY2022, or .58 percent of the state’s population.
In that same time, Idaho grew less in raw numbers than Washington but more as a percentage of its population.
Idaho had a population increase of 34,719 people over FY2022, or 1.82% of the state’s population.
Oregon was one of 18 states that experienced a population decline over this period.
Texas was the fastest growing state numerically, with a population now over 30 million for the first time. Florida was the fastest growing state in terms of its size, with a 1.9% population increase.
Nationally, the population growth trend was up, a .38% increase.
“There was a sizeable uptick in population growth last year compared to the prior year’s historically low increase,” said Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Population Division at the Census Bureau in a statement. “A rebound in net international migration, coupled with the largest year-over-year increase in total births since 2007, is behind this increase.”
Fiscal Year 2022 ran from July 1, 2021 to July 1, 2022.
