Wisconsin Gained About 12,000 New Residents from 2021 to 2022

Tuesday, December 27th, 2022 -- 9:00 AM

(By Evan Casey, Wisconsin Public Radio) Wisconsin gained about 12,000 new residents from 2021 to 2022, according to new numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau Thursday.

According to Evan Casey with Wisconsin Public Radio, the numbers are an improvement over last year's population increase of 3,585 people, but there were once again more deaths than births for the second straight year in Wisconsin.

In 2022, there were about 1,700 more deaths than births in the state, according to the data. Even so, the estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau did show that the state gained about 16,000 people as a result of net migration or the number of people who moved here minus those who moved away.

That includes about 8,000 international migrants. "The gains the state made in the last year are only the result of new people moving in," said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Burden said Wisconsin, like many other states, is dealing with the issue of not having enough employees to fill open job positions. "It's going to be essential for Wisconsin to continue to import people essentially from other places to keep up with its declining population from deaths and other natural causes," Burden said.

Wisconsin's population growth has stalled in recent years. A 2021 report from Forward Analytics found that from 2010 to 2020, Wisconsin’s population increased by 3.6 percent. That's the smallest increase in any 10-year period in the state's history.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.