Domestic Migration Drives New Hampshire Population Growth: Data

CONCORD, NH — A new report based on Census Bureau estimates shows that without domestic migration and immigration, New Hampshire's population would have dropped, not unlike two other northern New England states. The study from the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire showed that between July 2018 and July 2019, the state's population grew by 6,200, to 1.36 million people. That growth was driven by domestic migration and immigration to the state, according to Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at Carsey.

"The state’s population increased even though there were fewer births than deaths in the state last year," he wrote. "The number of deaths has increased significantly in recent years due to rising mortality among New Hampshire’s growing senior population, but drug-related deaths to young adults are also contributing."

New Hampshire was one of only four states in which deaths exceeded births last year. Maine and Vermont, New Hampshire's neighbors, also saw more deaths than births as did West Virginia, according to the estimates.

During the past three years, an average of 3,800 moved to the Granite State from other states each of those three years; an average of 2,200 net new immigrants from other nations also moved to the state. The data, Johnson said, showed migration was "critical" to the state's future.

Read the full report as well as other reports about the state's demographic and economic trends as well as the state's population growth here.

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