The U.S. Census Bureau said on Thursday that population growth in many large American cities slowed in the 12 months ending July 1, 2025, even as the national population rose by 1.8 million people over the same period.
According to the bureau's review, the average increase in population for metropolitan areas during that 12-month span was 0.6%, down from an average increase of 1.1% for the year ending July 1, 2024. The report highlights substantial deceleration in select metropolitan areas, particularly along the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
The three metropolitan areas that registered the steepest declines in their growth rates were Laredo, Texas; Yuma, Arizona; and El Centro, California. Laredo's growth rate eased from 3.2% in the 2023/2024 period to 0.2% in 2024/2025. Yuma's growth dropped from 3.3% to 1.4% across the same consecutive periods. El Centro moved from a 1.2% increase to a 0.7% decline year over year.
The White House characterized these figures as evidence of the effectiveness of border security policies implemented under President Donald Trump, who began his second term on January 20, 2025. That interpretation was cited in public statements following the bureau's release.
On geographic migration patterns, the Census Bureau reported that nine in 10 U.S. counties experienced lower net international migration in the 2024-2025 period compared with the year before. The bureau also noted that the one in 10 counties that did not see a drop in international migration did not record an increase either.
Separately, the bureau identified the states with the fastest-growing counties as Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. The report did not provide additional causal analysis beyond the year-over-year comparisons and the geographic breakdowns described above.
Key points
- Metro growth slowed to an average of 0.6% in the year to July 1, 2025, down from 1.1% the prior year.
- Laredo, Yuma and El Centro saw the largest drops in metropolitan growth rates along the southern border.
- Nine in 10 counties recorded lower net international migration compared with the previous year; the fastest-growing counties were in several Southeastern states and Virginia.
Context and implications
The data capture single-year changes in population and migration and identify geographic concentrations of slower growth. While the report documents where rates slowed and where counties continued to grow fastest, it does not extend to broader causal conclusions within the dataset beyond those year-over-year comparisons.
Risks and uncertainties
- The White House framed the statistics as reflecting border policy success - an interpretation noted in public statements but not expanded upon in the bureau's year-over-year accounting.
- The figures reflect a discrete 12-month period ending July 1, 2025, which limits extrapolation about longer-term trends based solely on this release.
- Geographic concentration of the largest slowdowns along the southern border highlights uneven effects across metros and counties; the report does not provide further causal detail on local economic impacts.