A news release posted by the U.S. Census Bureau on December 30 said that the nation’s population growth is slowing. National and state population estimates released that day revealed that forty-two states and the District of Columbia had fewer births in 2019 than 2018, while eight states saw a birth increase. With fewer births in recent years and the number of deaths increasing, natural population increase has declined steadily over the past decade, the report noted.
“While natural increase is the biggest contributor to the U.S. population increase, it has been slowing over the last five years,” the release quoted Dr. Sandra Johnson, a demographer/statistician in the Population Division of the Census Bureau. “Natural increase, or when the number of births is greater than the number of deaths, dropped below 1 million in 2019 for the first time in decades.”
It is apparent from these statistics that the myth of overpopulation in this country is baseless.
Though the 2020 census is yet to be conducted, census estimates indicate that the nation’s population was 328,239,523 in 2019, growing by 0.5 percent between 2018 and 2019, or 1,552,022 people.
Ten states lost population between 2018 and 2019, with four of them losing more than 10,000 people. New York declined by 76,790; Illinois by 51,250; West Virginia by 12,144, and Louisiana by 10,896. Connecticut lost 6,233 residents, and Mississippi, Hawaii, New Jersey, Alaska, and Vermont all lost fewer than 5,000.
The two largest Democrat-dominated states (California and New York) have both suffered population losses that will likely reduce their congressional representation — and consequently their electoral vote count — following the next census. Meanwhile the second largest state, Texas, which is thriving under Republican leadership, is expected to gain as many as three House seats, the most of any state.
Newspaper writers in both states are well aware of the decline, but it is doubtful that the “progressive” (some would say socialist) policies of California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, along with their allies in both state legislatures, will change.
There can be little doubt that these socialist policies — fueled by gargantuan taxes resulting in a lack of affordable housing — have driven the middle class out of both states.
An article in the Los Angeles Times for December 31 warned: “California is poised to lose a congressional seat for the first time in its history as a state,” and another in the New York Post for December 30 said: “Despite the nation’s longest economic expansion, the Empire State is actually losing population….” The article warned:
[New York] will likely lose at least one and possibly two congressional seats — and political clout — after the next official decennial census count because of its failure to grow compared to other states.
The beauty of our republican form of government is that with each state free to manage its own affairs, residents of states overburdened by over regulation and excessive taxation are free to “vote with their feet” and move to states such as Texas, that are governed more conservatively.
Illustration: Guzaliia Filimonova/iStock/Getty Images Plus
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Warren Mass has served The New American since its launch in 1985 in several capacities, including marketing, editing, and writing. Since retiring from the staff several years ago, he has been a regular contributor to the magazine. Warren writes from Texas and can be reached at [email protected].
