The Triangle's population soars, boosted by both domestic and international arrivals
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If you needed any more evidence that the Triangle is growing at a blistering pace, the latest population estimates from the Census Bureau show our area continues to outpace the rest of the nation by a significant margin.
Why it matters: While some of the largest metro areas in the country saw their population shrink in the immediate years after the pandemic — think New York; Washington, D.C. and San Francisco — the Triangle has continued to grow every year, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick writes.
State of play: Nearly 90% of the country's metro areas grew from 2023 to 2024, according to the Census Bureau.
Between the lines: Cities can thank international migration for this latest population spike.
- "All of the nation's 387 metro areas had positive net international migration between 2023 and 2024, and it accounted for nearly 2.7 million of the total population gain in metro areas," the bureau said in a statement accompanying the new data.
- How it works: The bureau bases these estimates on current data for births, deaths and migration, all of which affect overall population.
By the numbers: Since 2020, the Raleigh-Cary metro area has grown by 10.2% to 1.6 million people.
- Over the same period, the U.S. as a whole grew by 2.6%.
- The Durham-Chapel Hill metro area grew 6.6% during that period to around 621,000.
Zoom in: The Triangle has had more births than deaths since 2020, with the Raleigh metro having 30,100 more births than deaths and Durham having 7,100.
- In the Raleigh metro area, 31% of the 118,019 people who moved to the area were international migrants.
- In the Durham metro area, 76% of the 26,771 people who moved to the area were international migrants.
North Carolina's foreign-born population has become a significant part of the state's economy in recent decades, with the foreign-born population growing by 763 percent since 1990 and now making up 12.2% of the state's workforce, according to Carolina Demography.
- The counties with the highest shares of foreign-born residents are Mecklenburg at 16.5%, Durham at 15.2% and Wake at 14.5%.
- The two largest countries of origin are Mexico (22%) and India (9%), Carolina Demography found.
What's next: Demographers and other researchers will be keeping a close eye on how Trump administration policies might affect immigration levels.