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Louisiana population plummets for third straight year in a row [1]
['Emily Topping', 'Etopping Gulflive.Com']
Date: 2023-12-29 18:49:36.308000+00:00
According to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Louisiana’s population is declining at a faster rate than nearly any other state.
Louisiana lost more than 14,000 residents between July 2022 and July 2023, following a trend of steep population decline since 2020. In the past three years, the state has lost more than 1.8% of its population. The only other state to shrink at a faster rate was New York, with 11 out-of-state moves per 1,000 residents, compared with Louisiana’s 6.5.
The annual American Community Survey shows that the most moved-to states for Louisianans are Texas, Mississippi and Florida.
Reasons for residents’ departures include a laundry list of the state’s shortcomings: rising insurance costs, low employment prospects and lack of education, according to several residents interviewed by nola.com. Louisiana regularly tops lists of states with the highest violent crime rates, and several of its cities are ranked among the worst for women.
Part of the reason for the state’s declining population rate, however, has nothing to do with interstate moves, according to Allison Plyer, the chief demographer for the Data Center in New Orleans.
“I think folks forget that high death rate can significantly contribute to population loss,” Pryer said in an interview with Fox 8. “And we’ve had more people dying than actually leaving the state.”
More than 57,000 people in Louisiana died in 2020, a 30% jump from the previous year, attributed mostly to COVID-19 deaths. Still, three years later, death rates have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Louisiana’s decline comes in sharp contrast with the rest of the South. According to the U.S. census, “South Carolina and Florida were the two fastest-growing states in the nation, growing by 1.7% and 1.6%” respectively.
Louisiana losing population
2020: 4,652,022 people
2021: 4,627,047 people, a yearly decrease of 24,975
2022: 4,588,023 people, a yearly decrease of 39,024
2023: 4,573,749 people, a yearly decrease of 14,274
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
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[1] Url:
https://www.gulflive.com/entertainment/2023/12/louisiana-population-plummets-for-third-straight-year-in-a-row.html
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