Texas Population Soars to over 31 Million in 2024

By Max Roemer

  It is reported that the population in Texas has reached 31,000,000 people, encompassing legal and illegal residents. Texas added more residents than anywhere else in the country.

 Texas added 562,941 residents between July 2023 and July 2024 according to the US census estimates. Texas has added more residents than popular states such as California and Florida. Although immigrating to Texas is booming, it has slowed since last year. In comparison to past years, the people moving to Texas from other parts of the country has slowed. The rate of its population increased by 1.8%. Although this is impressive for Texas, Texas was the third highest rate of growth behind Florida and the District of Columbia.

   It’s assumed that the most influential cause of population growth is international migration. Texas added 319,569 new residents from abroad. That is the most growth since the COVID-19 pandemic. But no matter how impressive our population increased, the growth is behind Florida and California, which saw the largest increases. The census adjusted its counting method and changed the way it counts refugees and migrants this year. There is no distinction between legal and illegal residents in this year’s census.

  Interestingly, the United States added 3,300,000 residents over the last year. 2,800,000 residents came from other countries abroad. The COVID-19 pandemic drove Texas immigration to its highest recorded population growth. Residents from California and New York fled to Texas in the masses in order to leave the police state during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Domestic migration within the United States was led by Texas last year. North and South Carolina followed Texas in their population growths. Said states added 85,267 residents to their population. Not surprisingly California, New York, and Illinois saw the largest population losses in the last year. Yet, their losses were not as great as previous years.

  We question why Texas migration has slowed although it is still generously increasing. Many say that the people who have wanted to migrate to Texas have already done so. That is one hypothesis, yet we don’t really know. It is assumed that Texas will rely on international migration to meet its labor needs as the state’s economy continues to be booming. The upcoming mass deportations might harpen the Texas labor force.