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U.S. NEWS Friday 23 december 2022
International migration drove U.S. population growth in 2022

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Despite the overall popu-
Associated Press lation loss, California had
The U.S. population ex- the largest growth of any
panded by 1.2 million peo- state in international resi-
ple this year, with growth dents, just a hair’s breadth
largely driven by interna- ahead of Florida with more
tional migration, and the than 125,000 people. Cali-
nation now has 333.2 million fornia also had the second
residents, according to es- highest natural increase,
timates released Thursday only trailing Texas. Births
by the U.S. Census Bureau. outpacing deaths and the
Net international migra- international arrivals made
tion the number of people California’s population
moving into the U.S. minus loss smaller than last year,
the number of people leav- when it dropped by more
ing was more than 1 million than 358,000 residents.
residents from 2021 to 2022. The West region in 2022
That represented a growth lost some of its luster as a
rate of 168% over the previ- magnet for domestic mi-
ous year’s 376,029 interna- gration. Without interna-
tional migrants, with every tional migration and a size-
state gaining residents from able natural increase from
abroad, according to the births outpacing deaths,
2022 population estimates. Homes in suburban Salt Lake City are shown, April 13, 2019. Associated Press the West region would
Natural growth the number have lost population due
of births minus the number would have been back to 49,000 residents, driven in U.S. But California lost more to domestic residents also
of deaths added another almost flatline growth if not part by people moving out than 113,000 residents, and moving out of Oregon and
245,080 people to the total for this immigration,” said of Illinois and deaths out- had a population just over Washington.
in what was the first year- William Frey, a demogra- pacing births in Ohio. 39 million in 2022, in what Western hotspots like Utah,
over-year increase in total pher at The Brookings Insti- The South gained 1.3 mil- was the biggest annual Idaho and Montana had
births since 2007. tution. lion residents, the largest of decline behind New York’s smaller gains than last year.
This year’s U.S. annual Regionally, the Northeast any region, driven by pop- more than 180,000-resident Some of the slower growth
growth rate of 0.4% was a lost almost 219,000 people ulation gains in Texas and loss. The population decline in the West has to do with
rebound of sorts from the in a trend largely driven by Florida that approached a was driven by more than the pandemic, which led
0.1% growth rate during domestic residents moving half-million residents each. 343,000 domestic residents to fewer people moving,
the worst of the pandemic out of New York, New Jer- Other Southern states like moving out of California, and also the increasing
from 2020 to 2021, which sey and Massachusetts, as North Carolina, Georgia, and it helped drag down cost of living in places once
was the lowest since the well as deaths outpacing South Carolina and Tennes- the West region’s popula- regarded as cheaper alter-
nation’s founding. births in Pennsylvania. The see had among the largest tion gain to only 153,000 natives to California, ac-
“It’s welcome because we Midwest also lost almost growth in numbers in the residents. cording to Frey. q

West Point moves to vanquish Confederate symbols from campus

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN my’s Honor Plaza. away with installations that that depict significant “We will conduct these ac-
Associated Press The moves are part of a De- “commemorate or memo- events and figures in U.S. tions with dignity and re-
NEW YORK (AP) — Before partment of Defense direc- rialize the Confederacy.” history, including Benjamin spect,” he said.
turning against the U.S. tive issued in October or- That includes a trio of Franklin and Clara Barton. The United States Military
military to command the dering the academy to ad- bronze panels, measuring But the oversized plaques, Academy, as West Point
Confederate army, Robert dress racial injustice and do 11 feet tall and 5 feet wide, dedicated in 1965, not only is officially known, was es-
E. Lee served as the super- featured Lee and other tablished in 1809 along the
intendent of West Point, the supporters of the Confed- bank of the Hudson River in
hallowed military academy eracy but an image of an upstate New York.
that produced patriots like armed man in a hood, with The school has about 4,600
Ulysses S. Grant, Douglas “Ku Klux Klan” written be- cadets, two-thirds of them
MacArthur and Dwight low. white and about 13% Black,
Eisenhower. The congressional Naming according to federal data.
But in the coming days, Commission, which initi- West Point was not the only
the storied academy will ated the changes at the installation under scrutiny
take down a portrait of academy, noted “there by the congressional com-
Lee dressed in his Con- are clearly ties in the KKK to mission. It also recommend-
federate uniform from its the Confederacy.” ed that eight other installa-
library, where it has been In a message posted on tions address symbols of the
hanging since the 1950s the academy’s website, racist past.
and place it in storage. It Lt. Gen. Steve Gilland, the The U.S. Naval Academy
will also remove the stone academy’s superinten- in Annapolis, Maryland, re-
bust of the Civil War’s top This photo provided by the U.S. Military Academy at West dent, said it would begin named buildings and roads
southern general at Rec- Point in New York shows the three bronze panels at one of the complying with the com- that memorialized Con-
onciliation Plaza. And Lee’s entrances to Bartlett Hall, at West Point, that depicts the history mission’s recommenda- federate admirals or those
quote about honor will be of the United States. Associated Press tions during the holiday who sought to perpetuate
stripped from the acade- break. Black enslavement.q