LANSING – Michigan got an okay news/bad news story from the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday. Michigan saw population growth in 2012, but with Georgia adding more than 100,000 people in the last year, the Peach State surpassed Michigan to the nation’s eighth largest state.
And Michigan’s state demographer said at current growth rates, Michigan will fall to the 10th largest state in 2014, surpassed by North Carolina.
However, the state gained population for the first time in eight years, Demographer Ken Darga said.
Michigan’s growth was only about 1,000 people according to the Census Bureau estimates, an increase of 0.06 percent. That left the state with an estimated population in 2012 of 9,877,670.
But that still left Michigan with fewer people than it had in 2010, when it was counted at 9,883,360. The state dropped more than 6,000 people in 2011, the Census Bureau estimated, with a population 9,876,801.
Even so, Darga said 2012 marks the first year since 2004 that Michigan has seen an increase in population.
But Georgia, now with 9.19 million people, is the eighth largest state in the nation. It has gained more than 205,000 people since 2010.
The south was the fastest growing section of the country, gaining 2.7 million people in two years, while the Midwest gained just 400,000 people during the same time.
Presuming that rate of growth continues, Darga said North Carolina will surpass Michigan in 2014 as the ninth largest state.
North Dakota, with a thriving energy-based economy, was the fastest growing state in terms of overall percentage. The state gained more than 2 percent of its population, from 684,000 to 699,000 people.
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