Immigration in 2024 drove U.S. population growth to its fastest rate in 23 years as the nation surpassed 340 million residents. The U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday that the 1% growth rate this year was the highest it has been since 2001, and it was a marked contrast to the record low of 0.2% set in 2021 at the height of pandemic restrictions on travel to the United States. Immigration this year increased by 2.8 million people, partly because of a new method of counting that adds people who were admitted for humanitarian reasons.
