Trump’s immigration crackdown led to drop in US growth rate last year as population hit 342 million

U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday shows the U.S. population reached nearly 342 million in 2025, with a growth rate of 0.5%, a significant decrease from 2024's almost 1%. The drop in growth is attributed to a decline in immigration, which increased by 1.3 million in 2025 compared to 2.8 million the previous year, coinciding with President Trump's immigration crackdown. This decline impacted states like California, which experienced a population loss, and Florida and New York, which saw reduced growth due to lower immigration numbers. Births outnumbered deaths by 519,000, but the overall growth rate was still significantly lower than in 2024. The lowest growth rate in the past 125 years was during the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2021.

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