US Population Just Had Its Largest One-Year Increase in History

The U.S. has just experienced its largest one-year demographic increase in the country's history, growing by over 3.8 million in 2023 and mostly due to immigration, according to a recent report by John Burns Research and Consulting (JBREC).

Immigration is one of the biggest issues ahead of the 2024 presidential election, with polls showing widespread concern and President Joe Biden's likely Republican opponent Donald Trump accusing him of failing to stop a surge of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border during his presidency.

Eric Finnigan, vice president of Building Products Research and Demographics at JBREC, wrote about the report on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying that "the surge is likely short-lived" as it's almost entirely due to immigration, which is "conditional on policy, legislation, regulations" and others.

"Even so, the surge will have important ripple effects for years through housing, the economy, and the rest of society," Finnigan added.

According to Finnigan, a recent U.S. Census Bureau which said the country's population had grown by more than 1.6 million in 2023 underestimated immigration flows. The numbers mentioned by Finnigan can be found in JBREC's Burns U.S. Demographics Analysis and Forecast.

Newsweek contacted JBREC and the U.S. Bureau Census for comment by email on Friday morning.

On December 19, the U.S. Census Bureau stated that the American population had grown by more than 1.6 million over the year 2023, reaching a total of 334,914,895 people. While the uptick was still historically low compared to pre-pandemic time, the Bureau wrote, 2023 saw a bigger increase than 2022 and 2021. Most of this growth (87 percent) was driven by the South, the most populous region in the country, which increased by over 1.4 million residents in 2023.

According to the Census, the growth in the South can mostly be attributed to migration, with 706,266 people moving from other regions of the U.S. to the South and almost 500,000 coming from outside the country.

Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Population Division at the Census Bureau, said that the growth in the U.S. population was mostly due to migration returning to pre-pandemic levels and a drop in deaths. "Although births declined, this was tempered by the near 9 percent decrease in deaths," she said, in a statement shared by the Bureau. "Ultimately, fewer deaths paired with rebounding immigration resulted in the nation experiencing its largest population gain since 2018."

Population growth can have a positive impact on a country's economy, with more people bringing up demand for goods and encouraging economic growth. On the other hand, the massive influx of migrants crossing the southern border with the U.S. has concerned many across the country, who fear the U.S. will be overwhelmed by the arrival of so many people.

The problem of how to slow down the tide of migration on the U.S.-Mexico border is one of the key issues ahead of November's presidential election. House Republicans influenced by Donald Trump recently sank an immigration bill proposed by the Biden administration and saying that the president already had the means to stop immigration if he wanted to.

Earlier this week, the GOP-controlled House also impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden's top border official, whom they accuse of having failed to enforce U.S. immigration laws.

Update at 11.37 a.m. ET on 02/16/24 with additional information