- New Census Bureau data shows how many people moved in and out of the US between 2019 and 2020.
- We looked at net international
migration changes at the county level by adjusting forpopulation size. - Based on this, a few California counties had the largest negative net international migration.
Immigration is one of the key drivers of population growth in the US. Here's where people from other countries moved to last year.
The Census Bureau released population estimates on May 4 for 3,143 counties and county-equivalents. The new data show how populations have changed from 2019 to 2020.
Not only does the new data show where Americans were moving around the US in the past year but also how many people were moving in and of the country.
The Census data includes estimates of net international migration, or the number of people immigrating into the county from outside the US minus people moving out of the US to a different country.
Red counties in the above map mean more people moved out than in, and blue counties mean more people moved in than out. We adjusted each county's net international migration from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020, by its 2019 population.
When adjusting for population size, some of the counties with the largest negative net international migration were located in California, Idaho, and Kansas.
We decided to also look at net international migration among just large counties. The following table shows the 10 counties that saw the largest increases from net international migration per 1,000 residents among counties with at least 10,000 residents in 2019:
Miami-Dade County, Florida, had the largest postive net international migration estimate among all counties. This county saw 28,593 more residents from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020.
Some counties saw more people moving out to other countries than moving in from abroad. The following table shows the 10 counties that saw the largest decreases from net international migration per 1,000 residents among counties with at least 10,000 residents in 2019:
Based on the above table, six of the 10 counties with the largest decreases from net international migration among counties with at least 10,000 residents and adjusted by the county's 2019 population were in California.
The county-level population estimates part of the data release on May 4 are not the same as the official numbers from the 2020 decennial census. "The estimates are based on the 2010 Census and were created without incorporation or consideration of the 2020 Census results," the Census Bureau wrote about the population estimates.