(The Center Square) – New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows Michigan’s population continued to grow in 2025, though at a slower pace than the year before.
The state added about 28,000 residents last year – a 0.28% increase – down from a gain of roughly 38,000 people in 2024, according to Vintage 2025 population estimates covering the period from July 1, 2024, to July 1, 2025.
That marks a turnaround from earlier in the decade, when Census figures painted a much bleaker picture. In 2021, Michigan recorded a net population loss of about 31,000 people.
Since 2020, Michigan’s population has grown by just 0.55%, trailing nearby states such as Indiana (2.7%), Minnesota (2.1%), and Wisconsin (1.28%). The state has also lagged behind the Midwest as a whole, which has grown by an average of 1.14% since 2020 and 0.35% in the past year alone.
Nationwide, population growth has been even stronger, averaging 3.08% since 2020 and 0.52% over the past year. That underscores how Michigan continues to underperform both the region and the country overall.
Questions also remain about what is driving Michigan’s population growth. Census data shows much of the recent increase has not come from births or domestic migration, but from international migration.
Census figures released last year showed Michigan’s population increase in 2024 was largely fueled by international migration, a trend that was accelerated as the Bureau improved how it estimates immigrant populations.
After reporting a net gain of just 409 international migrants in 2020, Michigan saw that figure rise to about 7,000 in 2021, more than 33,000 in 2022, nearly 56,000 in 2023, and more than 67,000 in 2024.
In 2025, international migration fell to 30,706. Still, with deaths once again outpacing births, that migration accounted for nearly all of the state’s population increase. From 2022 through 2025, Michigan’s international migration remained higher than in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, ranking the state 23rd nationally.
Census officials attributed the rise in part to changes in population-tracking methodology, while also noting a “historic” decline in international migration early in 2025 that likely contributed to the smaller increase from 2024 to 2025.
Continuing a long-running trend, 2025 also marked the fifth consecutive year Michigan recorded a natural population decrease, with more deaths than births.
Yet, the data did include one bright spot.
For the first time in decades, Michigan posted a net gain of residents moving in from other states. The increase was small – fewer than 2,000 people – but it marked the first gain in annual estimates since at least 1990. Even so, Michigan continues to trail most states when domestic migration is measured relative to population size.
