Maine’s population continued to grow in the last year, fueled by pandemic-era domestic and international migration that has added more than 20,000 people to the state’s total since 2020, according to newly released Census figures.
The state’s population stood at 1,385,340 on July 1, 2022, up by 8,102 in a year and up by 21,783 since July 1, 2020, according to the figures released Thursday. Maine is the 42nd largest state.
Planners, realtors and other observers have noted an influx of new residents in Maine since the pandemic began in March 2020. The new Census numbers confirm that trend.
Since July 2020, an estimated 34,200 people have migrated to Maine — including 30,642 domestic migrants and nearly 3,600 international migrants, according to the Census figures. The state gained 14,125 domestic and international migrants in the year ending July 1.
The total population is offset by deaths and out-migration, however. There were 12,030 births in Maine in the year ending in July 1, 2022, up from 11,580 the year before. Deaths also increased, and outstripped the number of births, so the natural change in population was a loss of 5,943.
Among neighboring states, Vermont and New Hampshire saw an increase in population in the past year and since July 2020. Massachusetts’ population dropped.
The Census found that the regional populations in the Northeast and the Midwest overall dropped in the past year, as more people moved out. Southern states saw a population increase, led by Florida, Texas and North Carolina.
In raw numbers, Texas added the most new residents since July 2021, just over 470,000 to put the state population over 30-million. As a percentage basis, Florida was the fastest growing state in 2022, with an increase of 1.9 percent to put its total population at 22.2 million.
The US population stood at 333,287,557 in 2022.
“There was a sizable uptick in population growth last year compared to the prior year’s historically low increase,” Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Population Division at the Census Bureau, said in a Census news release. “A rebound in net international migration, coupled with the largest year-over-year increase in total births since 2007, is behind this increase.”
