This map shows the states where more people are dying than being born
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- Estimates published by the Census Bureau show where there were more people dying than being born and vice versa.
- There were more states seeing natural increase than natural decrease from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.
- West Virginia had the lowest natural change rate and Utah had the highest.
Most states saw their overall populations change in 2023, and a big part of those changes came from people being born and dying.
Most states in the West saw more births than deaths from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023. That includes California and Utah, according to the latest estimates available from the Census Bureau.
The Census Bureau publishes annual estimates of natural population change, or the difference between births and deaths in each state.
"U.S. migration returning to pre-pandemic levels and a drop in deaths are driving the nation's growth," Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Population Division at the Census Bureau, said per a press release. "Although births declined, this was tempered by the near 9% decrease in deaths. Ultimately, fewer deaths paired with rebounding immigration resulted in the nation experiencing its largest population gain since 2018."
The pandemic likely played a role in how natural change looked during the past few years, according to the Census Bureau, which noted "from 2020 to 2021 and 2021 to 2022, half of all states experienced natural decrease."
The post said Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and West Virginia "consistently had more deaths than births" during the 2010s. The new data highlighting changes from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, showed that these four states saw natural decrease again, but weren't the only ones.
West Virginia had the highest natural decrease rate during this time, according to Business Insider's calculations. We calculated the natural change rate per 1,000 by comparing the 2022–2023 natural change estimates to each state's 2022 population.
You can hover over each state and Washington, DC, in the following map to see these estimates.
"By July 1, 2023, natural change had rebounded slightly with only 19 states experiencing natural decrease, according to provisional data," the Census Bureau post about the recent natural change data stated. "And the South and the Northeast returned to being the regions with the most states with more deaths than births, although the levels were still much lower than during the two previous periods."
For instance, Florida, South Carolina, and Alabama all experienced some level of natural decrease from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.
Below are the states with the highest natural increase rates.
Utah, Texas, and Alaska had the highest rates when considering their 2022 population size.
Below are the places that saw the biggest natural decreases per 1,000.
West Virginia had a fairly substantial natural decrease rate compared to other states. Maine followed behind with a rate that wasn't too far removed from West Virginia's rate.