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Census: Pennsylvania’s population down slightly
Keystone State one of eight to lose residents in national count
Roger DuPuis//December 21, 2016
Census: Pennsylvania’s population down slightly
Keystone State one of eight to lose residents in national count
Roger DuPuis//December 21, 2016
The state had 12,784,227 residents as of July 1, according to the Census Bureau. That represents a decrease of 7,677 people from the 2015 estimate of 12,791,904, but still up by more than 81,000 people over its 2010 decennial census tally of 12,702,857.
To put that in perspective, the state’s growth since 2010 has been roughly equivalent to adding a community larger than the cities of Harrisburg (about 49,000) and Lebanon (about 25,000) combined.
Nevertheless, Pennsylvania is one of only eight states estimated to have lost population since last year — including New York and Wyoming, which, like Pennsylvania all recorded growth the previous year.
Illinois lost more people than any other state, down 37,508, while Utah is the nation’s fastest-growing, increasing 2.0 percent to 3.1 million, census estimates show.
Top 10 unchanged
Overall, though, the nation’s top 10 states remained unchanged: California (39,250,017), Texas (27,862,596), Florida (20,612,439), New York (19,745,289), Illinois (12,801,539), Pennsylvania (12,784,227), Ohio (11,614,373), Georgia (10,310,371), North Carolina (10,146,788) and Michigan (9,928,300).
Among Pennsylvania’s other neighbors, Maryland was up year-over year (5,994,983 to 6,016,447), while West Virginia was down (1,841,053 to 1,831,102) and Delaware was up (944,076 to 952,065).
Historically, Pennsylvania’s population has increased in every national decennial census conducted since 1790, though it has not seen a double-digit percentage increase since 1930, and the growth rate has largely fallen since then.
During the 1970s and ’80s, the state grew by less than 1 percent per decade, though the 1990s and 2000s saw growth of 3.4 percent per decade, census data show.
It is not uncommon, however, for the state’s estimates to go up and down in the yearly estimates between censuses.
