New census figures show relatively flat growth for Forsyth and Guilford counties but increasing populations in some surrounding counties.
The data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau looked at growth between July 2023 and July 2024. Results show population increases of less than one and a half percent for both Guilford and Forsyth counties.
Alamance, Davie and Davidson counties all grew by more than one and a half percent.
Iredell was the only county in the region to expand by at least 3 percent.
Michael Cline, North Carolina’s state demographer, says the state’s growth is largely driven by two groups: retirees seeking homes in the mountains or on the coast and younger people moving here for jobs in metro areas.
In most counties, Cline says deaths are outpacing births.
“And so the challenge is for a lot of these counties that since 2020 that may have shown growth in these estimates, is that that's all reliant on net migration. As they go forward, if economic downturn occurs, you know that could certainly change those dynamics rather quickly.”
Watauga was the only northwest North Carolina county to decrease in population. Most of the counties that lost residents were clustered in the northeastern part of the state.