(The Center Square) – Data from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2024 found that while Colorado had a gain in population over the past year, more than half of it was driven by international migration.
Vintage 2024 numbers released last week show that, after a number of years of slowed population growth, Colorado had a net gain of 56,000.
Over the past few years, the Bureau has improved its methodology to better estimate the number of international migrants to the country.
That has lead to the number of international migrants tracked by the Bureau in the state steadily increasing, also meaning an increase in the state’s population.
“Improved integration of federal data sources on immigration has enhanced our estimates methodology,” said Christine Hartley, assistant division chief for Estimates and Projections at the Bureau. “With this update, we can better understand how the recent increase in international migration is impacting the country’s overall population growth.”
In 2020, the Bureau reported a net gain of only 240 international migrants in Colorado largely due to COVID-19 pandemic immigration restrictions.
In 2021: 3,911
In 2022: 18,507
In 2023: 27,177
In 2024: 33,227
The Bureau does include “unauthorized migrants” in its statistics, collecting “data from all foreign born who participate in its censuses and surveys, regardless of legal status.”
Colorado has more than 159,700 “undocumented immigrants,” according to the American Immigration Council. They make up 29% of the total immigrant population in the state, which totals 557,200.
While the Council states that only 29% of the immigrant population are undocumented, it also reports that only 48%, or 267,600, of the total immigrant population in the state are naturalized U.S. citizens.
Between 2023 and 2024, both the total U.S. population and the population on Colorado grew by nearly 1.0%.
“This is the fastest annual population growth the nation has seen since 2001 – a notable increase from the record low growth rate of 0.2% in 2021,” the Census said in a news release. “The growth was primarily driven by rising net international migration.”
Unlike some other states, Colorado has avoided net losses to other states over the past few years. Natural population change (the difference between births and deaths) was also the highest since 2020.
In 2020, there were 3,688 more births than deaths. In 2024, there were 17,294 more births than deaths. That made Colorado one of the states with the highest quantity of positive natural population change.
