StateStats: Population Relocation: July/August 2011 

The United States added 27.3 million people between 2000 and 2010, according to the Census Bureau. That’s a growth rate of 9.7 percent, the slowest overall rate since the 1930s.

While the white population accounted for 13.5 percent of all the growth, the Hispanic population grew almost four times faster—at 55.5 percent of the total—and is now the largest minority group. Asian Americans’ share of the last decade’s growth was 18.8 percent, and African Americans’ was 17.3 percent. Native American’s accounted for 2.1, percent and Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders only 1 percent.

Continuing a 40-year trend, population growth has shifted from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West. In the last decade, Nevada had the largest percentage growth, adding 35.1 percent to its total population, while Texas had the largest number of new residents, at 4.5 million. Michigan’s population actually declined by 0.5 percent, making it, along with Puerto Rico, the only two places to have lost population in the past decade..