Population Growth · Wyoming

## What this measures

How much Wyoming's population grew or shrank in the year to July 1, as a percentage of the population a year earlier.

## Why it matters

Population growth is the slow-moving force behind demand for housing, schools, roads and workers. States that keep growing faster than the country gain tax base, seats in Congress and labor supply; states that shrink face the reverse.

## How to read it

Percent change from the prior July 1. The U.S. grew about half a percent a year in the late 2010s. A state growing two percent a year is adding residents fast; a negative number means more people left or died than arrived or were born.

## What it does not say

It does not say why: births minus deaths, moves from other states and arrivals from abroad each have their own series (census.pep.net_domestic_migration.wy, census.pep.net_international_migration.wy). Three years compare two different estimate series: 2000, 2010 and 2020 each compare a July 1 from one decade's estimates with a July 1 from the next decade's. Both sides of each pair are tied to the same census, and the points are flagged in their metadata. Recent years are revised each December.

## Source

U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program: 1990-1999 and 2000-2009 intercensal state estimates, 2010-2019 intercensal estimates (county totals summed to the state), and the newest vintage of the state totals file (NST-EST) for 2020 on. A work of the U.S. Government (17 U.S.C. §105), public domain. Palanor reads the public files weekly; each December's new vintage rewrites every year from 2020. Growth is a Palanor calculation: (population ÷ population a year earlier − 1) × 100. Each point keeps both populations.