The U.S.'s population growth is slowing as immigration has declined amid President Donald Trump's deportation push and stricter border policies. According to new Census Bureau data, the drop-off is the biggest since the COVID-19 pandemic. From July 2024 to July 2025, the population of the United States grew by 1.8 million people (about 0.5%). This was mostly driven by immigration: During that period, the U.S. added 1.3 million immigrants.
The big picture: The drop in workers could alter the nation's projected demographics and make it difficult to revive manufacturing jobs - or to attract workers in health, agriculture and energy as the population ages. Projected new workers entering the workforce wouldn't fully make up the difference, leading to the net reductions, per the National Foundation for American Policy, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that focuses on trade and immigration.
The official US labor force, which measures the number of working-age Americans actively working or looking for work, is shrinking at a rate normally seen during the depths of economic crises.
According to a new report from Oxford Economics, the potential output growth for China could fall from around 4% in the 2020s to less than 2% by the 2050s.
