A recent analysis by the U.S. Census Bureau shows North Carolina is continuing its growth spurt. It's just the latest evidence of a population boom in the Tar Heel State.

The Census recently looked at population growth and decline in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia since 2010. They then split up the results by both percentage growth and a raw count of residents.

North Carolina came in 13th on the former list, and 4th place on the latter, adding nearly 850,000 people over that period, an 8.9 percent jump.

The data falls in line with the recent trend of people moving to the South and the West.

Meanwhile, many states in the Northeast had only mild growth, while places like West Virginia and Illinois actually lost residents.

Nationwide, the United States grew by nearly 6 percent over the last eight years, bringing the nation's total population to more than 327 million people.