Baby Boom: North Dakota Had 5th Highest Natural Population Growth Rate In 2014

It’s not really a surprise that in 2014 North Dakota again led the nation in population growth. The plunge in oil prices didn’t happen until the end of 2014, and the beginning of 2015, so we aren’t yet seeing the impact of that on population growth.

Still, this is pretty amazing:

More amazing, however, is that North Dakota’s population isn’t just growing because of people moving here. While we certainly lead the nation in that metric…

…the state also ranks near the top in natural population change. With “natural” defined as how many people were born in the state versus how many died. North Dakota ranked 3rd in the nation for births, and 34th in the nation for deaths:

This is quite a development for a state that, prior to the Bakken oil boom, had an aging population that was shrinking as it died off.

Of course, it will be interesting to see what happens with numbers like these now that the oil boom is cooling off. I suspect we’re going to see a leveling off of growth, and perhaps even some out-migration, but I think the energy sector is going to remain strong (just not booming) for years to come which will continue to impact North Dakota’s population in positive ways both through renewed births and in-migration.