Two states need more residents
The 2023 census numbers are in, and the South remains America’s fastest-growing region by a wide margin. Mississippi and Louisiana, unfortunately, are missing out on this.
The country’s population increased to 334.9 million as of last July 1, an increase of 1.6 million over the past year. It’s the most growth since the covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and the Census Bureau attributes that to more normal patterns of migration between states, along with a declining number of deaths, presumably from fewer covid infections.
The South added 1.4 million residents in 2023, which accounted for 87% of the country’s population increase. The Census Bureau said 706,000 residents from other areas of the nation moved in, as did a “net international migration” of almost 500,000 people. (The report does not specify whether this includes immigrants who entered illegally.)
Texas and Florida — of course — reported the nation’s two biggest population increases in 2023. Texas added a whopping 473,000 residents, while Florida added 365,000. Georgia and North Carolina also had solid gains.
And then, there are Mississippi and Louisiana, which are not sharing in the South’s population boom.
Mississippi, which made news in 2020 when it lost residents over the prior decade, has finally stopped the bleeding. Census figures say the state lost 9,000 people in 2021 and 11,000 more in 2022. For 2023, there finally was a smidge of growth: 762 people, for a total in the state of 2.939 million.
That’s modestly good news, but the state still has 22,000 fewer residents than it did in 2020. However, it could be worse. And you don’t have to look far to find it.
Louisiana lost 14,200 people in 2023, the third straight year since the 2020 census that the state’s population has fallen. Louisiana’s current population of 4.573 million is 84,000 less than just three years ago, and its rate of decline is the third highest in the country. Only New York and Illinois are losing more people.
A recent story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune cited a declining birth rate as a factor, but added that the state’s number of deaths “remains substantially higher than it was before the pandemic began in 2020.”
Clearly, leaders of the two states must come up with policies to keep up with growth in the rest of the South. But it seems like the first thing to do, at least for Mississippi, is to acknowledge that comparisons with much larger states like Texas, Florida and Georgia are not helpful.
They have giant metropolitan areas. Mississippi has Jackson, Biloxi and Hattiesburg. There’s a big difference.
The three states have 30 million, 22 million and 11 million people, respectively. Mississippi has 3 million, and is saddled with relatively low income, education and health statistics. It will take years or even decades to improve those.
Now, having pointed out these deficiencies, there are reasons for optimism.
The pace of economic development seems to be increasing. In the last couple of years, a number of large companies have chosen to come to Mississippi or to expand existing operations. Over time, this will bring more people to the state.
Education scores are improving as well. A smarter work force will pay off one day.
Mississippi cannot compare to the big states. But we can look at what’s going on in states like Arkansas and South Carolina, and most importantly, set realistic goals based on Mississippi’s prior performance. We’re heading in the right direction; just not as fast as Texas.
