From Wirepoints, reposted with permission:

New 2022 Census data: Illinois’ population down another 104,000, nation’s 3rd-worst drop

By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner

New 2022 state population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show Illinois was once again one of the nation’s biggest losers. The bureau does a population estimate each year in addition to its full decennial census count at the end of each decade.

Illinois’ population shrank by over 104,000 between 2021 and 2022, the third-worst decline in the nation behind only New York and California. That’s similar to last year, when Illinois lost an adjusted 100,000 in population.*

In contrast with Illinois’ struggle to keep its residents and attract more in-migration, all of Illinois’ neighboring states except Michigan managed to grow their population.

Illinois’ shrinkage also stands in stark contrast to the population increases of the nation’s fast-growing states in other parts of the country. States like Florida and Texas grew their populations by more than 400,000 each in 2022.

llinois’ outlier status is all the more obvious when compared to its neighbors. Every one besides Michigan grew its population in 2022. Indiana was again the biggest winner, adding more than 19,500 people.

Michigan, like Illinois, shrank in 2022, but its losses were comparatively far smaller, just 0.03 percent of its population.

Illinois’ births, deaths and out-migration

Illinois’ change in population came from three major sources: the state’s net natural increase, its international migration and its domestic migration.

Illinois experienced 131,491 births and 126,625 deaths in 2022, resulting in a net natural increase of 4,866 people. That’s close to the state’s record low. Net international migration brought in another 31,539 people, up from a low of just 5,856 last year. 

And as in years past, domestic migration is where Illinois really suffered: 141,656 more people moved out of Illinois than moved into the state in 2022. 

Combine all three components and you get Illinois’ net population loss of 104,437 in 2022. (The actual sum contains a small 824 residual adjustment by the Census Bureau.)

Total losses since 2020

Today’s population data release marks the second year of population estimates since the 2020 Decennial Census.

In total, Illinois’ population has shrunk by more than 230,500 people over the past two years (reported as the “Cumulative Change, April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2022”).

That’s nearly 2 percent of its 2020 population.

By comparison, states like Florida (706,597) and Texas (884,144) have added hundreds of thousands of people. And states like Idaho (5.4%), Montana (3.6%) and Utah (3.3%) have grown their populations by several percentage points.

The continued pressure on Illinois’ population should be impossible for the state’s leadership to dismiss, but that hasn’t been the case.

Rather than act with urgency, last year Gov. J.B. Pritzker was happy to trumpet that the state had lost “only” 18,000 people between 2010 and 2020 – far less than the 250,000 the Census had originally projected.

Never mind that Illinois was one of only three states in the country to shrink in population. 

But now these new Census numbers show that, in just two years, Illinois has already lost 210,000 more population than during the entire 2010-2020 period.

The governor’s failure to address

• the state’s highest-in-the-nation property taxes,
• its worst-in-nation pension crisis,
• its growing crime,
• the state’s broken finances,
• its outlier jobs climate and
• more – 
• not to mention his draconian Covid policies of the last two years –

continues to drive more residents out of the state.

*The Census Bureau’s original 2021 population estimate reported that Illinois’ population declined by 113,700 in 2021. This new report revises the loss down to 110,111.