New York State population grows by 130,000, mostly due to immigration
New U.S. citizens at a special naturalization ceremony at Fire Island National Seashore Lighthouse on Sept. 11. Credit: Lauren Chenault
New York State’s population grew by nearly 130,000 residents in 2024, its largest one-year increase since before the pandemic, largely due to a wave of immigrants moving to the Big Apple, according to U.S. census data released last week.
While the state's population increased by 0.65%, the figures, which reflect the period from July 1, 2023, through July 1, 2024, also showed a continued domestic exodus of nearly 121,000 New Yorkers relocating to other states.
New York, the nation's fourth-most populous state, added 129,881 residents in 2024, the fifth-highest increase behind Texas, Florida, California and North Carolina, according to census estimates.
But a closer look at the data tells a more complicated story about New York's population trends.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- New York State’s population increased by nearly 130,000 residents in 2024, its largest one-year hike since before the pandemic, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
- The population spike was largely the product of a net international migration increase of 207,161 people in 2024, the most since the turn of the century.
- Meanwhile, census data shows a continued domestic exodus of nearly 121,000 New Yorkers who relocated to other states.
The state saw a net international migration increase of 207,161 people in 2024, its largest since the turn of the century, figures show. The state, primarily New York City, has seen an influx of migrants in recent years arriving from countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, China and Africa.
More people admitted for humanitarian and often short-term reasons were included in the tally, reflecting a change in the way the Census Bureau counts immigrants in its annual estimates.
The state also benefited from having 43,701 more births than deaths during the one-year period, figures show.
While the state has seen an explosion of international migration, domestically New York continues to bleed its population, census figures show.
New York had a net loss of 120,917 residents due to domestic migration, the second most nationwide behind only California, although the exodus is its smallest since 2020, according to Jan Vink, a researcher with Cornell University's Program on Applied Demographics, who analyzed the data.
For example, in 2021 New York had a net domestic migration loss of just over 300,000, according to Cornell's analysis.
"This is a trend that has been going on for many, many years ... We're now dependent on international migration to have a growing population," Vink said.
New York's population could see a decline in the coming years, experts said, with President-elect Donald Trump promising mass deportations of individuals in the U.S. illegally.
John Cameron, executive principal of Cameron Engineering and chairman of the Long Island Regional Planning Council, said the state's population trend is heading in the wrong direction as wealthy job creators increasingly relocate to Florida, Texas, Tennessee and the Carolinas.
"The demographic is definitely changing ... In nature, it fails if you have too many consuming and not enough producing," he said. "We can't lose this productive workforce."
Last year, New York experienced a slight population gain of 33,620 people, its first one-year increase since before the pandemic, largely due to immigrants relocating to the state, according to revised census figures that were recalculated this year utilizing the bureau's new method for calculating immigrants.
A spokesman for Gov. Kathy Hochul did not respond to a request for comment on the data.
Impact on Long Island
The data does not provide a breakdown for Long Island specifically.
But between July 1, 2022, and July 1, 2023, the Island's Hispanic population rose 1.1%, growing by an estimated 6,871 people for a total population in Nassau and Suffolk of 610,696, Newsday reported in June. The Island's Asian population grew 4.4%, or by 10,761 people, in 2023, up to 252,957, according to Newsday's analysis.
Long Island's estimated total population in 2023 was 2,904,885, a decrease of 8,383 from the prior year, according to census estimates.
Nationwide, immigration helped drive a nearly 1% population growth in 2024 — the most in 23 years — with the United States surpassing 340 million residents, according to Census Bureau statistics. The growth was highest in the southern U.S., including Texas and Florida, and lowest in the Midwest region, the data shows.
"Net international migration has become the primary driver of the nation’s growth," said Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Census Bureau’s Population Division.
With The Associated Press
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
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