News
State Population Grows While City, County Lose
Wyoming’s population grew 2.3% from 2010 to 2020, according to the US Census Bureau, who recently released data from the 2020 Census.
Wyoming, according to the Census, had nearly 577,000 residents as of 2020 which is an increase of just over 13,000 people, or 2.3%, from 2010.
That is the 7th slowest growth rate in the country, and the slowest for the state since the 1980s.
Johnson County, in 2020, had 8,487 residents, down from 8,569 in 2010.
Buffalo, in 2020, had 4,578 residents, down from 4,585 in 2010.
The Census Bureau reports there are two factors contributing to the state’s population change.
Natural increase (72,000 births less 47,000 deaths) was about 25,000, but the derived net migration (in-migration less out-migration) was about -11,775, which means that approximately 11,800 more residents left Wyoming than moved into the state from 2010 to 2020.
In contrast, the population increased 14.1 percent between 2000 and 2010.
The downturn in the energy industry is cited as the main reason for the negative net migration and consequently the slow population growth in Wyoming
For the U.S., the population count was 331,449,281 on April 1, 2020, an increase of 22.7 million or 7.4 percent from 10 years ago, the second slowest growth rate ever, slightly higher than the 1930s.
