(The Center Square) – Data from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2024 found while Michigan had a gain in population over the past year, it was driven by international migration.
Vintage 2024 numbers, which were released recently, also signal Michigan likely won’t lose any Electoral College votes in a 2030 reapportionment, instead keeping all 13 of its current votes.
Over the past few years, the Census data has not looked good for Michigan, looking bleakest in 2021 when the state had a net loss of 31,000.
Since then though, the Bureau improved its methodology to better estimate the number of international migrants in the state. This year, it had a gain of 57,000.
Due to that change, the number of international migrants tracked by the Bureau in the state has been steadily increasing, leading to an increase also in the state’s population.
“Improved integration of federal data sources on immigration has enhanced our estimates methodology,” said Christine Hartley, assistant division chief for Estimates and Projections at the Bureau. “With this update, we can better understand how the recent increase in international migration is impacting the country’s overall population growth.”
In 2020, the Bureau reported a net gain of only 409 international migrants.
- In 2021: 7,044
- In 2022: 33,541
- In 2023: 55,863
- In 2024: 67,608
The Bureau does include “unauthorized migrants” in its statistics, collecting “data from all foreign born who participate in its censuses and surveys, regardless of legal status.”
Michigan has more than 88,000 “undocumented immigrants,” according to the American Immigration Council. They make up 13% of the total immigrant population in the state, which totals 690,000.
While the Council states that only 88,000 of the immigrant population are undocumented, it also reports that only 54.7%, or 376,000, of the total immigrant population in the state are naturalized U.S. citizens.
In 2020, the total population estimate for Michigan was 10,072,703. In 2024, that increased to 10,140,459. That means Michigan remains the 10th-most populous state in the nation.
Net losses to other states were down in 2024 from previous years, while natural population change (the difference between births and deaths) was also the lowest since 2019.
Still, the natural population change was in the negative, with 2,855 more deaths than births. As for net losses to other states, the Bureau reported a net loss of 7,656. This is much lower than in 2021 when the state had a net loss of nearly 30,000, likely driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The total U.S. population grew by nearly 1.0% between 2023 and 2024, while Michigan had a 0.6% increase.
“This is the fastest annual population growth the nation has seen since 2001 – a notable increase from the record low growth rate of 0.2% in 2021,” the Census said in a news release. “The growth was primarily driven by rising net international migration.”
