Conn. one of 10 states with population decline

Connecticut was one of 10 states where the population shrank from July 2018 to July 2019, according to new estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau this week.

The number of residents fell by 6,233, a decrease of .2 percent. The Census Bureau estimated that there were 34,567 births in Connecticut in the year, and 31,149 deaths. Connecticut lost just over 22,000 people from statetostate migration, and gained about 12,000 people through international migration.

With 3,565,287 people, Connecticut ranks 29th in the U.S., the same spot it held in 2010.

Nationally, population growth is slowing, the agency said in a press release, and in 42 states, including Connecticut, there were fewer births in 2019 than 2018. The U.S. population grew by about .5 percent, or about 1.5 million people, from 2018 to 2019, to 328,239,523.

The “natural increase,” determined by subtracting the number of deaths from the number of births, fell below 1 million this year for the first time in decades, Census Bureau demographer/statistician Sandra Johnson said in a statement. “While natural increase is the biggest contributor to the U.S. population increase, it has been slowing over the last five years,” she said.

The Northeast region “saw population decrease for the first time this decade,” the agency said. The population of the area, which is made up of the six New England states, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, fell by 63,817 or .1 percent from 2018 to 2019.

The drop was attributed to domestic migration, as just over 294,000 people moved to other states. That “offset population gains from natural increase (97,152) and net international migration (134,145), or the difference between the number of people moving into the country and out of the country,” the Census Bureau said.

The largest population growth was in the South, followed by the West and Midwest.

Data released by the agency earlier this fall showed that Florida, New York and Massachusetts were the top three destinations for Connecticut residents moving outofstate in 2018.

Five states saw steeper declines than Connecticut’s .2 percent drop: Hawaii, New York, Illinois, Alaska and West Virginia. Four states and the District of Columbia lost more than 10,000 residents.

Connecticut’s population has fallen each of the past six years, Census Bureau estimates show. At the start of the decade, the state had an estimated 3,574,147 residents; that climbed to 3,594,841 in 2013, and has now dropped to 3,565,287.

While several states could lose or gain seats in the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2020 Census, Connecticut is expected to maintain its five seats.

Texas, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon could gain seats, the Associated Press reported, while Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia are likely to lose representatives. California, the most populous state by more than 10 million people, could also lose a seat for the first time.

The estimates released this week were the last that the Bureau will provide before the 2020 Census, which will begin in April.

State officials have emphasized the importance of the upcoming population count, which could affect federal funding.

The state will spend $500,000, and philanthropic organizations have pledged another $500,000 to ensure a complete count, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said earlier this month. More than a quarter of Connecticut’s census tracts are considered “hard to count,” based on their responses to the last census in 2010.