Immigrants outnumber US births for first time

Rural red states enjoyed population boons, while hundreds of thousands left the liberal strongholds of New York and California.

By World Israel News Staff

For the first time in American history, the number of foreign nationals immigrating to the U.S. outnumbered births in the country in 2021, Front Page reported last week.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2021 saw the population grow by just 0.1 percent, “the lowest [population growth] rate since the nation’s founding.”

That marks the first time since the Great Depression in 1937 that the U.S ‘s population has grown by less than one million people.

It’s unsurprising that COVID-19 pandemic, which saw many lose their jobs, would trigger a lower number of pregnancies, as people found themselves on unstable financial ground.

The institute also found that “net international migration… has exceeded natural increase for a given year.”

Excess births (enough to sustain the population) numbered just 148,043, where as newcomers to the U.S. numbered 244,622.

But looking at the population rate by state paints a very different picture than overall decline.

Notably, the U.S. states that experienced positive population growth were rural red states, such as Idaho, Utah, and Montana.

Idaho in particular had a nearly 3 percent population increase.

More urbanized red states, including Florida and Texas, also enjoyed positive population increases.

The liberal strongholds of New York, Washington D.C., and California all saw hundreds of thousands of residents flee their jurisdictions for greener pastures.

Daniel Greenfield, an analyst at Front Page, said the numbers are important for understanding how the conveniences of cities, like easy food delivery and working from home, are not appealing to wide swathes of the population.

“Lockdowns, remote meetings, and masks allowed the elites to retreat further behind a digital iron curtain, serviced by unobtrusive servants, real and virtual, AI and gig workers, freed from having to even leave their apartments to enjoy the pleasures of life,” wrote Greenfield.

“It never occurred to them, and still doesn’t, that most people don’t want to live that way.”

With crime waves in major cities like Los Angeles and New York making those urban areas less appealing to live in, it would appear from the statistics that many Americans are seeking a better life in areas with smaller governments and less densely crowded cities.