CHARLESTON — West Virginia continues to lose population.
The latest annual report from the U.S. Census Bureau shows West Virginia among nine states that lost population last year.
West Virginia is down 11,216 residents from July 1, 2017, to July 1, 2018.
The other states that lost population over that period included New York (down 48,510), Illinois (45,116), Louisiana (10,840), Hawaii (3,712), Mississippi (3,133), Alaska (2,348), Connecticut (1,215) and Wyoming (1,197).
“Many states have seen fewer births and more deaths in recent years,” stated Sandra Johnson, a demographer/statistician in the Population Division of the Census Bureau.
“If those states are not gaining from either domestic or international migration they will experience either low population growth or outright decline.”
This is a familiar, sad story in West Virginia.
West Virginia’s population now stands about 1.8 million.
Last year’s report from the U.S. Census Bureau showed a population loss of 12,780 for West Virginia.
A study from earlier this year by Pew Charitable Trusts showed that West Virginia is one of two states, along with Michigan, to lose population over the course of the past decade.
West Virginia’s population according to the 2010 Census was 1,852,994.
“This is a long-running trend, so it’s not anything surprising. It’s not anything new,” said John Deskins, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at West Virginia University.
West Virginia’s demographics, particularly its population that is already older, mean the state has been losing more people to death than gaining by birth over the past few years.
Deskins expects that to continue.
“We expect this to be the case for the foreseeable future, at least the next decade,” Deskins said in a telephone interview today.
The other part of population change is migration.
“We have to have positive net migration even just to stay even because of the natural population decline,” Deskins said. “It’s tough because of that fundamental underlying demographic force that we see.”
West Virginia has been gaining new residents in areas like the Eastern Panhandle and the north central region of the state.
But other areas have struggled economically, leading to extensive population loss.
“Migration was bad,” Deskins said. “The net migration was certainly negative to a significant extent here of the past few years when the recession was hitting hard.”
The population loss can build on itself, with the youngest, healthiest, highest educated residents looking for opportunities elsewhere.
“Population growth is a part of making the state attractive to potential businesses,” Deskins said. “If you see an area of population decline, is a business going to come there? A business has to be confident it’s going to find the workers it needs before it locates in an area.
“For some regions of West Virginia, this population loss is just part of a vicious cycle. The people who move out tend to be more educated, more healthy, so that makes the area look less attractive. So the cycle continues.”
The United States population grew by 0.6 percent last year, according to the Census.
Nevada and Idaho were the nation’s fastest-growing states with 2.1 percent population increases.
Other states with population growth included Utah (1.9 percent), Arizona (1.7 percent), and Florida and Washington (1.5 percent each).
The country’s population as a whole continues to grow because of both natural increase and international migration.
International migration was slightly higher last year (978,826 compared to 953,233 the year before), while natural increase was slightly lower last year (1,041,487 compared to 1,122,546 the year before).
