Census: Georgia becomes rare state with 11M+ residents

The U.S. tallied its largest population growth in five years in 2023, and Georgia was among the leading states driving that boost, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

In fact, the Peach State exceeded a new population threshold for the first time in history, joining just a handful of U.S. states with 11 million or more people, according to Vintage 2023 population estimates released in December by Census officials.

According to the analysis, Georgia added 116,077 residents across the year ending in July, for a total population of 11,029,227.

Only eight states count 11 million or more people. And just three states grew more than Georgia last year.

As the country’s eighth most populous state, Georgia ranks just below Ohio, with about 750,000 fewer residents than the Buckeye State, per the Census data.

United States Census Bureau

Overall, the U.S. population is back on the upswing, with 1.6 million additional residents (a 0.5 percent growth rate) to just shy of 335 million people—the largest population boost in any year since the COVID-19 pandemic started. (A 9 percent decrease in deaths was also credited with helping sustain population numbers.)

As the nation’s most populous region, the South accounted for 87 percent of U.S. growth in 2023, continuing its trajectory as the only region to maintain population growth throughout the pandemic era.

Over the past year alone, more than 706,000 people came to the South region via net domestic migration, while nearly 500,000 arrived via net international migration, according to Census estimates.

United States Census Bureau