WYOMING — As of July 2024, Wyoming’s resident population reached 587,618, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
This marks an annual increase of 2,551 individuals, or 0.4 percent, which is lower than the national growth rate of 1.0 percent observed from July 2023. According to a press release from the State of Wyoming Department of Administration & Information (WDAI), Crook County led the state with the fastest growth rate (2.4%), followed by Albany (1.7%) and Sheridan (1.2%) counties. Niobrara and Washakie counties experienced the steepest decreases, -1.1 percent and -1.0 percent, respectively. Laramie and Natrona counties, the only two Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the state, grew moderately at 0.7 percent and 0.6 percent correspondingly.
In Teton County, 2023 to 2024 saw a population decrease of -0.4%.
The WDAI confirms that 2,146 more persons moved into Wyoming than moved out of the state between July 2023 and July 2024. In contrast, for the previous two years, net migration was 3,000 and 2,778, respectively.
“Following an extraordinary event in 2021, when deaths surpassed births during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wyoming has since experienced a positive natural change,” Dr. Wenlin Liu, Chief Economist with the State of Wyoming, Economic Analysis Division, said in the release.
The ongoing decrease in the fertility rate (births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 44) and the aging of the baby boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1964) have also significantly reduced the population growth compared to pre-pandemic levels. In recent years, the WDAI writes that, across the state, approximately half of the counties showed negative natural change (more deaths than births), most of which are small and rural counties such as Hot Springs, Johnson, Niobrara and Platte where nearly 30 percent of their population was 65 years and over. In contrast, Campbell, Albany and Laramie counties experienced large natural increases in 2024.
The state experienced nearly six consecutive years of negative net migration (more people left than moved into the state) between 2014 and 2019 due to what the WDAI calls “the energy downturn.” But the direction of net migration has since reversed.
“Employment opportunities driven by the energy sector have long been a key factor in Wyoming’s migration trends, but the pandemic significantly influenced this dynamic in recent years,” said Dr. Liu.
This pandemic-induced migration pattern (relocation from large cities with high costs to less populated, lower-cost areas) has somewhat slowed down across the country. Partially due to the U.S. Census Bureau’s methodological improvement, which specifically incorporated administrative data on immigrant cases from the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and the Office of Homeland Security, the estimated “net international migration” for the state was 1,037 in 2023 and 1,285 in 2024. This marks a significant increase compared to the annual figure of around 500 before the pandemic, the WDAI writes.
Regionally, more than half of Wyoming’s counties showed positive net migration from 2023 to 2024, led by Laramie (580), followed by Albany (532), Sheridan (398) and Natrona (379). Three counties experienced negative net migration of over 100: Teton (-172), Converse (-110) and Uinta (-104).
Since the April 1, 2020, Census, the WDAI confirms that Wyoming’s population has increased by 10,774 or 1.9 percent, which is slower than the U.S. rate of 2.6 percent.
