The 44,144 residents added in 2024 represent Indiana’s largest one-year increase since 2008. Photo from Getty Images.

By Leslie Bonilla Muñiz
Indiana Capital Chronicle

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s population swelled to just under 7 million residents last year — but international immigration accounted for most of the growth, according to a Thursday, March 13, Indiana University analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

The 44,144 residents added in 2024 represent Indiana’s largest one-year increase since 2008. The Hoosier state’s population totaled 6.92 million.

“While the size of Indiana’s growth in 2024 was similar to 2008, the drivers of change in these years were drastically different,” said Matt Kinghorn, senior demographer at IU’s Indiana Business Research Center, in a news release.

Natural increase — the difference between births and deaths — was 77% of the state’s growth in 2008, according to Kinghorn. But that’s flipped.

In 2024, net international immigration of 30,852 residents accounted for 70% of growth.

Net international migration is any change of residence across U.S. borders, per the Census Bureau. It includes those who are foreign-born; who are migrating between the U.S. and Puerto Rico; American citizens migrating to and from the U.S.; and military personnel movement between the U.S. and abroad.

The analysis found immigration particularly prominent in rural and mid-sized counties. The news comes as lawmakers and Gov. Mike Braun are cracking down on illegal immigration.

Seventeen of the state’s 23 rural counties — which aren’t part of federally designated metropolitan or micropolitan areas — grew last year.

They netted about 1,550 residents through in-migration, but collectively recorded a natural decrease: 716 more deaths than births.

“As in rural Indiana, growth in the state’s mid-sized counties has been driven exclusively by a net in-migration of residents,” the analysis reads.

Indiana’s 25 mid-sized counties, known as micropolitan areas, had a net inflow of 3,289 residents. But they recorded a natural population decrease of 588.

Urban areas led growth, however.

The 44 Indiana counties that are part of a metropolitan area combined to add 40,667 residents in 2024, accounting for 92% of the state’s growth that year. They posted net in-migration of 30,281 residents — and a natural population increase of 10,463.

In total, 73 of the state’s 92 counties grew last year. This is the largest number of Indiana counties to show an annual population increase since 1997, Kinghorn said.

Of them, 75 had more people move in than out. But just 30 had more births than deaths, according to the analysis.