There were 1,824 fewer people living in Louisiana in July 2017 than there were the year previous, which made it America’s seventh-fastest shrinking state.
That’s according to a new analysis by 24/7 Wall St., a Delaware-based financial news and opinion firm. As USA Today reports, Louisiana’s population decline was driven by people leaving the state for other places in the United States. Many likely left for economic reasons.
The unemployment rate in Louisiana stood at 5.1% in July 2017, nearly the highest among all states and well above the 4.4% national unemployment rate. A shrinking manufacturing sector can partially explain this. Economic output in manufacturing, the Louisiana’s largest industry, dipped by 5% from mid-2016 to mid-2017.
The five fastest growing states in the analysis were: Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Washington and Florida. States that shed the most people were: Wyoming, West Virginia, Illinois, Alaska and Hawaii.
While the U.S. population has grown steadily every year for decades, not all parts of the country are benefitting equally. Counting births and newly settled immigrants—less all deaths and people who left the country—the U.S. population grew by 0.7%, or about 2.3 million, from 2016 to 2017. Read the full story and see the full rankings.
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