(The Center Square) — Louisiana’s white and Black populations are driving the state’s decreasing population trend, while other minority groups are increasing, according to new U.S. Census data.
Vintage 2022 Population Estimates released by the U.S. Census on Thursday show the state’s overall population declined by 36,857 between July 1, 2021 and July 1, 2022, slightly more than half the 61,423 residents who have left the state since July 1, 2020. The overall population estimate for 2022 was 4,590,241.
The new data breaks the figures by sex and race, showing Louisiana’s largest racial groups drive the decline.
White residents numbered an estimated 2,913,072 in 2020 and have since declined to 2,868,945 in 2022, losing 44,127. An estimated 24,362 have left since July 2021, suggesting the exodus is accelerating slightly, according to the data.
The Black resident population has followed a similar trend, with 1,527,231 in July 2020 declining by 22,481 to 1,504,750 in 2022. The Census Bureau estimates 15,156 left the state between July 2021 and July 2022.
Those declines have been countered somewhat by other minority groups including Hispanics, Asians, American Indians and Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, all with increased populations in recent years.
The number of Hispanic Louisianans made the largest gain, increasing by 4,929 between July 2020 and July 2022, with 2,962 moving to the Pelican State between July 2021 and July 2022. The total Hispanic population was estimated at 140,591 in 2022.
American Indians are up 915 between July 2020 and July 2022, with 356 moving between July 2021 and July 2022, when the total stood at 38,096.
Asians have increased by 567, from 87,747 in 2020 to 88,314 in 2022, with all of the increase between July 2021 and July 2022.
Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders numbered 3,020 in July 2022, up 87 since July 2020, according to the data.
When examined by sex, significantly more men leave Louisiana than women, despite the latter outnumbering the former.
Louisiana men numbered an estimated 2,247,370 in July 2022, down 20,493 from the year prior and down 34,072 from 2020. Women, meanwhile, declined by 27,351 between 2020 and 2022 to 2,342,871. An estimated 16,364 left between July 2021 and July 2022.
As residents have left the state, the median age has slowly increased. In July 2020, the median age for both sexes was 37.6, with the median age for men was 36.5 and for women it was 38.7. Those numbers ticked up to an overall median of 37.9 in July 2021, with the median age for men at 36.7 and women at 39.
In July 2022, the overall median was 38.1, with men at a median age of 37 and women at 39.3, Census data shows.
