The Lone Star State also added more new Hispanic, Asian, and black residents to its growing population than any other state last year.
Houston added the most Hispanic residents and Dallas the most Asian and black residents among all U.S. metro areas, Census data show.
“We are adding more people, and that would include all different kinds of people and more diversity,” said Xiuhong “Helen” You, associate director and senior demographer of the Texas Demographic Center. “Whether it’s people who are looking for job opportunities or whether it’s people who are beginning to establish families and are looking for affordable homes.”
In the United States, Hispanics accounted for nearly three-fourths of the nation’s population increase last year, according to the bureau’s 2022 to 2023 estimates.
Hispanic people, who can be of any race, have also become the nation’s second-largest demographic group. The majority of that growth is attributed to births, which outpaced the number of deaths.
“The Hispanic population is expanding at a substantially faster rate than the non-Hispanic population, primarily due to natural increase, that is, more births than deaths,” Census Bureau demographer Kristie Wilder said in a statement.
Since 2022, the Hispanic population has gained nearly 1.2 residents, bringing the total population estimate to 65.2 million, or nearly one-fifth of the total U.S. population, according to the bureau’s estimates.
Over the same period, the non-Hispanic white population declined.
“The annual increase of 1.8 percent was in sharp contrast to the 0.2 percent increase in the non-Hispanic population, whose growth was tempered by a decline among non-Hispanic Whites, the largest demographic within the non-Hispanic category and the only one to experience a population loss,” Ms. Wilder added.
White Population Declining
The nation’s largest racial or ethnic group, non-Hispanic white people, representing 58 percent of the population, was the only group to experience a year-over-year drop—461,000 people—caused by deaths outnumbering births.
The non-Hispanic population would have decreased further if not for immigration. With a median age of 43.2, it is the oldest demographic group.
South Carolina added the most non-Hispanic white residents among states, and Nashville had the biggest gain among metro areas.
Immigration, rather than births, drove the increase in the Asian population, which added more than 585,000 people last year and totaled more than 20.6 million.
The black population also grew by half a million to a total of 42.3 million last year.
The American Indian and Alaska Native population increased by 8,227 people, mostly through births, to 2.4 million people.
The national median age grew slightly from 38.9 in 2022 to 39.1 in 2023.
Among metro areas, The Villages retirement community in central Florida had the highest median age of 68 last year, while Provo, Utah, had the youngest at 26.1.
Among the states, Texas had the highest increase in Hispanic population last year, with 242,000 residents, 30 percent of whom lived in metro Houston.
The Lone Star State added nearly 92,000 new Asian residents and 91,000 new black residents. The Dallas metro area accounted for almost half of the state’s gain of Asian residents and 40 percent of its increase in black residents.
“Our state is a younger state than the rest of the nation, and our Hispanic population also is a younger group, and at the same time, we have an aging white population,” said Coda Rayo-Garza, research and data director at Every Texan, an advocacy and research group. “We are only going to experience more and more growth in the nonwhite demographic group.”
Women accounted for 51 percent of the U.S. population.
Alaska and North Dakota have a majority male population, with 52.5 percent and 51.3 percent, respectively. Fourteen other states also have a male majority.
Texas Counties Lead in Growth
Texas counties took eight of the top 10 spots for the most new residents over a one-year period from 2022 to 2023, according to previous Census Bureau report.
Harris County, which encompasses Houston and surrounding areas, led the way with a net gain of 53,000 residents, followed by Collin County, north of Dallas, which attracted over 36,000 people. Montgomery County ranked third with a gain of nearly 32,000 residents.
Maricopa County, Arizona, and Polk County, Florida, rounded out the top five counties with the highest net gains of residents at 30,038 and 29,948, respectively.
The Census Bureau’s data is based on net population gains, which accounts for the number of people who move into an area minus those who moved out, as well as births and deaths.
