Idaho’s growth starts to slow
The state was once one of the fastest growing in the country
Idaho’s reign as the one of the fastest growing states in the country may be coming to a close — though it’s still growing fast and gaining on the tail of Nebraska.
According to data released Thursday from the U.S. Census Bureau, no Idaho counties or census-designated metro- or micro-areas cracked the top 10 for largest growth between July 1, 2023, and July 1, 2024. Instead, those lists are dominated by Texas, Florida and other sunbelt states.
Nine of Idaho’s counties lost population in 2024, compared with only two in 2023, according to Jan Roeser, an economist with the Idaho Department of Labor.
That’s a shift from the highs of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Idaho outpaced all other states in 2021 and saw a population growth of nearly 3%, or just over 53,000 residents. Between 2023 and 2024, the most recent numbers available, Idaho’s rate of growth fell to 1.5%, which is still a sizeable number of nearly 30,500 residents.
That trend isn’t the only thing that’s changing.
According to Roeser, urban counties in Idaho are now seeing more growth than rural areas, a switch-up from the pandemic when Idaho’s growth was more evenly distributed.
“The COVID-19 pandemic brought a rush of new residents to Idaho, particularly impacting rural areas of low population density that offered outdoor recreation,” Roeser said in a news release. “This growth spurt has reversed in a good portion of Idaho’s smaller counties, likely due to the larger population areas having more services to offer the aging populations.”
This shift, she said, is in line with a nationwide trend of metro areas seeing a resurgence after the pandemic.
“Population growth in U.S. metro areas as a whole was faster between 2023 and 2024 than in the previous year and outpaced that of the nation,” according to the Census Bureau. “Additionally, some metro areas that experienced population declines during the COVID-19 pandemic are now observing population gains.”
Most of Idaho’s population growth over the last decade has been from people moving from out of the state, Roeser said. Migration from other states made up 80% of Idaho’s growth in 2024.
The top 10 most populated counties in Idaho, such as Ada, Canyon and Kootenai, added over 26,000 residents over the last year. Only Nez Perce County, which covers Lewiston, saw a slower rate of growth than in 2023.
Those 10 largest counties were responsible for 85.5% of Idaho’s growth in 2024, a jump up from the 2023 level of 74.6%, Roeser said.
The state’s continued influx of new residents has put it in contention with Nebraska, the next largest state. The Idaho Department of Labor announced that Idaho had cracked the 2 million resident mark in December, the same time that Nebraska also passed that number.
According to prior Idaho Statesman reporting, there were 2,001,619 Idaho residents and 2,005,465 Nebraska residents as of July 1, 2024 — a difference of about 4,000 residents.
Idaho could soon eclipse the cornhuskers, with Idaho growing over 0.6% faster than the Midwest state. But it might take a little while to get to the next state on Idaho’s list: New Mexico, with 2,130,256 residents.
