Immigrants maintained the largest urban county in the United States last year.

Core counties in metropolitan areas of Houston, Miami and Phoenix have grown more than any other part of the country, primarily because they move outside the US, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates released Thursday.

Without international immigration, no one would have moved there last year in Harris County, Texas, Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Maricopa County. That’s because people who already live in the country have gone outside of those counties. Miami-Dade County would have lost its population without immigration. This is because the number of births exceeding deaths was not sufficient to overcome the tens of thousands of residents who moved.

Immigration in 2024 brought the overall US population to the fastest speed in 23 years, as its citizens surpassed 340 million residents. The Census Bureau changed the way immigrants were counted last year by including more people hospitalized in the US for humane and often temporary reasons.

“The main driver of the US population growth has long been a birth that exceeds deaths, and this surplus has declined over the past four years, providing a large portion of the country’s population growth.”

Domestic and international immigration

The 2024 estimate reflects the continuing dissonance of the last decade between current US residents and places where immigrants choose to live. Last year, immigration moved to the metro region’s urban core, but those who already live in the country preferred the county in the far suburbs of the metro region.

The most popular counties of international immigration last year were Miami-Dade and Harris counties, followed by Chicago’s home base, Los Angeles and Cook counties, Illinois.

Last year, the most popular county for domestic residents was Montgomery County, Texas, north of Houston. Pinal County, Arizona, southwest of Phoenix. Pasco County, Florida, northeast of Tampa. Top Rank was also located between Polk County, Florida, between Orlando and Tampa, and in the far north suburbs of Metrodallas, Colin County, Texas.

New York is currently rebounding

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the US in 2020, the New York metropolitan area, which had some of the most dense populations in the US, lost tens of thousands of residents.

However, the region has been rebounded since the pandemic subsided. New York’s metropolitan area (the largest metropolitan area in the United States with 19.9 million people) added more people last year than any other metropolitan area in the country. 147,000 residents moved in, bringing in nearly 288,000 immigrants, including tens of thousands of people who arrived on buses provided by Texas. San Francisco and Washington, DC are other metro regions that gained population through international migration after losing them first during the pandemic.

New York’s metropolitan area also achieved the largest natural growth last year, with nearly 214,000 births overtaking 141,000 deaths.

South Florida jumped over two spots in the Washington Capital Region and Metro Atlanta last year, becoming the sixth most populous metropolitan area in the United States. Metropolitan Charlotte, North Carolina bypassed Metro Baltimore towards 21st place. Of the counties, Tarrant County, Texas, is home to Fort Worth and jumped over Southern California’s San Bernardino County as the 15th most populous county in the country.

Deaths exceed two-thirds of births in US counties

Last year, almost two-thirds of the 3,144 US counties grew. Similarly, deaths that exceed two-thirds of US counties’ births reflect the reliance on immigration for growth across the United States for several years since the start of the pandemic. Nationally, the natural growth last year was less than half the average profits the country experienced five years before the pandemic, Johnson said.

“These recent levels of natural declines are unprecedented,” Johnson said.

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