Births in Arizona outpace deaths for first year since COVID-19 as state adds 66K new residents

For the first year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, births in Arizona outpaced deaths in the state, according to new 2023 estimates of population growth released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The state’s population continued to grow last year, though it added markedly fewer residents than in either of the two previous years, due in part to changes in where Americans are moving within the country.

“Areas which experienced high levels of domestic out-migration during the pandemic, such as in the Midwest and Northeast, are now seeing more counties with population growth," Lauren Bowers, chief of the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Branch, said in a news release. "Meanwhile, county population growth is slowing down out West, such as in Arizona and Idaho.”

The new numbers estimate growth between July 2022 and July 2023. Here's what they show:

How much did the population change in the state?

Arizona added more than 244,600 people — a population increase of 3.4% — between July 2020 and July 2023, according to an Arizona Republic analysis of the census estimates released Thursday.

Births in the state last year looked much the same as births in the state the year before, with approximately 78,500 babies born.

But the number of deaths in Arizona — which hovered near 80,000 in 2020 and 2021 — saw a significant decrease: About 70,700 people died, bringing deaths lower than births for the first time in three years.

Arizona is among the top 10 states with the highest growth rates, but states like Texas and Florida grew faster.

The state added an estimated 65,660 residents between July 2022 and July 2023. That’s about 27,500 fewer people than it added in the year prior, and about 20,100 less than two years before, in part because of significantly smaller net domestic migration (the number of people moving into Arizona from around the country, minus the number of people moving to other states).

Did the population in metro Phoenix grow?

Metro Phoenix — which the Census Bureau draws as a composite of Maricopa and Pinal counties — added 49,240 people between July 2022 and July 2023. That’s less than each of the two previous years, during which the region’s population grew by more than 70,000 residents a year.

Which counties saw the most growth?

Maricopa County, which was the nation’s highest-gaining county in 2022, dropped to fourth place last year behind three Texas counties: Montgomery County, Harris County and Collin County (which are in the Houston and Dallas metro areas).

Between 2020 and 2023, Maricopa County’s population grew by 140,812 people — 60% of the state’s total additions across the same time period.

But Maricopa didn’t have the highest growth rate of any Arizona county over the past three years: That honor goes to Pinal County, which grew by 12.6% across the three-year period.

How many people moved to Arizona from other places?

More people moved to Arizona than moved out of the state in 2023: The state saw positive net domestic and international migration, the census statistics revealed.

But net migration — the number of people who moved into the state, minus those who moved out — shrank markedly compared with the two previous years. In both 2020 and 2021, net migration hovered about 90,000 people. In 2023, that figure dropped to about 58,000.

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Reach Sahana Jayaraman at [email protected]. Follow her on X @SahanaJayaraman.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona population grows by 65,660 in latest US census numbers