A nationwide wave of international immigration in 2024 staunched years of population declines in Louisiana , according to newly released estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

That increase, which can be partly attributed to more accurate methods of counting foreign-born residents , was large enough to prevent Louisiana’s population from dwindling for the fourth consecutive year. But the state still suffers from the trends that caused those declines: large numbers of residents moving out of the state and a birth rate just barely above its death rate.

Between 2023 and 2024, Louisiana’s population grew by just under 10,000 people, with the estimates putting the total population at 4,597,740 as of mid-year. That’s a growth rate of 0.2%, slower than any other state that gained population in the past year.

Parish-level population estimates won't be released until next year.

Nationwide, the population grew by about 1%, bouncing back from years of stagnant growth during and after the coronavirus pandemic. That was almost entirely driven by estimates that 2.8 million more people moved to the U.S. than left the country. The overall population now stands at about 340 million.

About 23,000 more people moved to Louisiana from other countries between 2023 and 2024 than moved from the state to international destinations, according to the new estimates. That’s a substantially larger increase in international migration than the state has seen in decades, according to census figures.

In part, that’s because the Census Bureau revamped their methodology this year in an effort to better account for foreign-born residents. Those changes led to larger estimates of how much immigration is fueling the country’s growth, though the same methodology was also applied retroactively to all estimates released since 2020 to allow for comparisons.

The influx of immigrants is perhaps the only bright spot in the estimates for Louisiana, which is one of 16 states that would have lost population if not for migration from other countries.

That’s because residents continue to leave the state for other parts of the United States.

About 17,000 more people left Louisiana than moved in from other parts of the country, according to the estimates. Only six states saw a larger percentage of their population move away over the past year.

Adding to the state’s population woes was a birth rate that barely exceeded its death rate. A decade ago, about 20,000 more Louisianians were born than died each year. But since then, the annual number of births has been dropping while the number of deaths has risen.

As a result, there were only about 4,000 more births than deaths in Louisiana last year.

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