The Fastest Growing and Shrinking States

People have been moving out of Illinois en masse for years. Due almost entirely to outbound migration, by mid-2017, Illinois had 33,703 fewer residents compared to a year before and 76,471 fewer residents compared to five years before. Population decline often results in reduced demand for housing, and this has strained Illinois’s largest industry, the real estate, rental, and leasing industry. Economic output of the industry dipped by 2.0% from mid-2016 to mid-2017, compared to 0.9% growth nationwide over the same period.

Like every other state on this list, more people are leaving West Virginia than moving in. Many may be leaving for better economic opportunities. The unemployment in the state stood at 5.2% in 2017, nearly the highest jamong states and well above the comparable 4.4% national rate. Additionally, West Virginia’s 19.1% poverty rate is higher than all but three other states.

West Virginia is the only state in the country to report more deaths than births between 2016 and 2017. One of the hardest hit states by the opioid epidemic, nearly 1,000 West Virginia residents died of a drug overdose in 2017, an 11.2% increase from the previous year.

No state lost a larger share of its residents over the past year than Wyoming. Wyoming’s population, already the smallest of any state, shrank by 5,600 — or 1.0% — between July 2016 and July 2017.

Despite the nation-leading population decline, Wyoming’s economy is growing rapidly — thanks in part to increased output in the mining, quarrying, and gas extraction industry. Wyoming’s GDP grew by 3.7% from mid-2016 to mid-2017, outpacing the 2.3% U.S. GDP growth. Over the same period, Wyoming’s largest industry — mining, quarrying, and gas extraction — grew by 22.2%.