Michigan gains 28k residents, reversing losses to other states

In reversal, Michigan gained 1,800 more residents from other states than it lost for the year ending in July, according to Census Bureau
Overall, Michigan gained roughly 28,000 residents for the year, bring the state’s population to an estimated 10,127,884
State growth is still driven by international immigrants, but there are signs it’s waning sharply amid a federal crackdown

For the first time in at least 35 years, more people moved to Michigan from other states than moved out for the year ending in July, according to estimates released Tuesday by the US Census Bureau.

Michigan gained about 1,800 residents in moves from other states — its first year of positive domestic migration since at least 1990, according to historical Census Bureau data reviewed by Bridge Michigan.

Overall, the bureau estimates Michigan added nearly 28,000 residents between July 2024 and July 2025, driven largely by international migration. Its 0.3% growth ranked 36th among the states and was below the national rate.

The growth is “a sign that our strategy is working,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement, citing Michigan’s relatively low cost of living, availability of jobs in the skilled trades, access to free education and natural beauty.

“Our work to get things done on the kitchen-table issues that make a real difference in people’s lives is paying off,” the governor said.

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But the positive domestic migration from other states is more attributable to declining departures than a surge of new arrivals, Jacyln Butler, Michigan’s state demographer, told Bridge.

“Michigan’s trend is consistent with trends in the Midwest more broadly,” she said, alluding to a multi-decade decline in interstate mobility among Americans.

Butler noted that among people moving into Michigan, recent federal survey data shows jobs are the top reason.

“Michigan gains more people listing jobs as a reason for moving in versus moving out,” Butler said.

Michigan’s domestic migration gain was notable given years of losses to other states but played only a small role in the state’s modest population growth for 2025. The state gained an estimated 27,922 residents, about 0.3% increase to 10,127,884 people. It remains the 10th most populous state.

The recent growth was driven almost entirely by international migration. Despite a sharp decline relative to 2024, the Census Bureau estimated 30,706 people moved to Michigan from abroad for the year ending in July. By contrast, Michigan took in nearly 67,608 international immigrants in the 12 months before that.

There are also indications international immigration to Michigan will continue to wane, at least in the short term, amid an ongoing clampdown on both legal and illegal immigration by President Donald Trump’s administration.

Nationally, US population growth slowed in 2025, driven largely by a “historic decline” in international migration, according to the Census Bureau. The country added an estimated 1.8 million residents, a 0.5% increase.

According to an analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy, the Trump administration is projected to reduce legal immigration to the US by an estimated 33% to 50% by the end of his term, resulting in millions of fewer people gaining lawful permanent residency.

The administration has stripped legal protections from more than from more than 1.5 million humanitarian parolees. It’s also ramped up deportations in Michigan and other states and has promised to swiftly deport millions more, bypassing heavily backlogged immigration courts through expedited removal, though some efforts have been blocked by courts.

Michigan’s migration-driven population increases in recent years have also been blunted by ongoing natural population losses. The state recorded about 5,000 more deaths than births in the most recent estimate, reflecting the state’s aging population and declining birth rates.

Lawmakers in recent years have attempted to ease the financial burden of parenthood through programs targeted at poor households, such as cash payments to pregnant women and new mothers, universal free pre-k and increasing Michigan’s match of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit.

Whitmer also created a council to study the state’s sluggish population growth, but few of the recommendations from the council’s final report have been adopted, and lawmakers in October rejected Whitmer’s request to continue funding a population growth office the council had recommended.

The one-year population estimates released Tuesday are considerably less precise than the bureau’s decennial Census and are usually revised over time, meaning the gains and losses can be fickle.

A year ago, the Census estimates found Michigan’s population had grown by more than 57,000 people from 2023, to 1,140,459. That 2024 total was revised downward by more than 40,000 to 10,099,962 in the latest release, while the 2023 estimate was also revised down by more than 20,000. Butler noted new data sources and updated methodologies allow the bureau to revise for more accurate estimates.

Michigan’s 0.3% population growth for the year ending in July remained below average, as the population grew about 0.5% nationwide.

Michigan lost an estimated 65,000 residents to other states over the prior five years, but those losses had narrowed in recent years.

The exodus from Michigan peaked in 2008 — at the height of the Great Recession — when nearly 104,000 people left Michigan in a 12-month span. From 2010 to 2020, the state continued to lose an average 25,000 residents a year to other states. After 2020, though, the departure began to wane, and in 2024 the Census Bureau estimated a little over 8,000 domestic departures.

According to 2024 data, Michigan got most of its new residents from Florida, California, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. Most residents moving out of state went to Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Arizona and Indiana.