Utah among only 8 states with more births this year than last

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For the decade, no state grew faster than Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is among only eight states that had more births this year than last, according to new census numbers released Monday.

Population estimates continue to show the nation’s growth is slowing, with natural increase dropping below 1 million for the first time in decades due to fewer births and more deaths.

“While natural increase is the biggest contributor to the U.S. population increase, it has been slowing over the last five years,” Sandra Johnson, a U.S. Census Bureau demographer, said in a press release.

Utah had 293 more births in 2019 than 2018, second to Washington among the eight states — all but one in the West — that saw an increase, according to the Census Bureau. Forty-two states and the District of Columbia had fewer births during that time.

Census numbers show Utah had 48,642 births and 17,433 deaths between July 1, 2018, and July 1, 2019.

The state’s fertility rate — the number of births per each woman of child-bearing age — has declined, according to a different set of data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released earlier this month. For the first time in recent memory, Utah has slipped from its No. 1 spot.

Utah is among the fastest-growing states in the country, ranking fourth behind neighboring Idaho, Nevada and Arizona in terms of percent growth from 2018 to 2019, according to the Census Bureau. The state picked up 52,408 new residents the past year, falling just outside the top 10 in numeric growth.

For the decade, no state grew faster than Utah. Census data shows the state’s population at 3,205,958 in 2019, up 16% from 2,763,891 in 2010. Utah added 442,067 residents during that time.

Texas at 15.3%; Colorado, 14.5%; and Florida, 14.2%, were the next fastest-growing states over that 10 years. (The District of Columbia outpaced the states at 17.3%.)

Overall, 42 states and the District of Columbia saw population increases between 2018 and 2019, according to the Census Bureau. Ten states lost residents from the previous years, four of which exceeded 10,000 people.

Nine states have a population of more than 10 million.

Annual U.S. growth peaked this decade between 2014 and 2015. The growth the past year continues a multiyear slowdown since then, according to the Census Bureau.

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