Texas is now home to 31 million people even as population growth slows

Texas' population surpassed 31 million people this year, largely due to international migration. (Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune)

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DALLAS — Texas’ population surpassed 31 million people within the last year as the state added more residents than any other place in the country, estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau show.

However, the number of people who moved from other parts of the country slowed.

Texas added 562,941 residents between July 2023 and July 2024, census estimates show — ahead of Florida and California. That growth brought the state’s total population to 31,290,831.

The state didn’t add residents as quickly as it did the previous year, but the rate of its population growth — 1.8% — was still the third-highest in the country behind Florida and the District of Columbia.

A major driver of that growth came from net international migration. Texas added 319,569 new residents from abroad, the most since the COVID-19 pandemic — but behind Florida and California, which saw the largest increases.

The census changed the way it counts refugees and migrants this year. However, it does not distinguish legal status in its estimates.

That growth mirrors gains seen across the nation. The United States added 3.3 million residents within the last year — 2.8 million of which came from other countries.

Meanwhile, Texas saw fewer residents move from other states than it did during the COVID-19 pandemic — when the state attracted residents from places like California and New York in search of more affordable homes among other factors.

Texas still led the country in domestic migration, followed by North Carolina and South Carolina, adding 85,267 people from other states within the last year. California, New York and Illinois saw the largest population losses in the last year, but those states lost fewer residents than they did in previous years.

Why domestic migration to Texas slowed isn’t clear, said Lloyd Potter, the state demographer, but it’s possible that many of the people most likely to move to Texas from other states have simply already done so. With domestic migration appearing to slow, Texas will likely rely on international migration to meet its labor needs as the state’s economy booms, he said.

“With a growing economy, we have a growing demand for labor,” Potter said. “And if we're seeing a decline in domestic migration, well that labor probably is going to need to come from immigrants.”