According to new Census Bureau estimates, Louisiana’s population shrank by more than 27,000 in the year that ended July 1, the fifth biggest decline among U.S. states.
As deaths rose and births dropped due to the pandemic, tens of thousands of more residents left the state than moved in.
The decline marks the fourth time in five years the state has lost residents and is the largest one-year decline since nearly 275,000 people were forced out of the state during Hurricane Katrina.
The new estimates track closely with trends that the Census Bureau said added up to the weakest annual growth the country has seen since its founding. The U.S. as a whole, gained fewer than 393,000 people, a growth rate of about 0.1%.
The once-a-decade census, which began releasing data in August, pins its data to April 1, 2020, when the pandemic was still in its infancy and hurricane season had not yet arrived.
