Massachusetts population growth slowed in 2025 due to a slowdown in the international immigration fueling growth in recent years, new data from the Census Bureau showed.

The population of Massachusetts grew 0.2% from July 2024 to July 2025, Census data released Tuesday showed, up to 7,154,084.

Like much of the country, Massachusetts’s slowing growth marked a reversal from post-pandemic upticks — 0.9% in 2024 and nearly 0.7% in 2023 — largely driven by an influx in migrants.

The trend reflected what Census analysts called a “historic” decline in immigration across the country. The U.S.’s  growth collectively slowed “significantly” to an uptick of just 1.8 million or 0.5% in 2025, the slowest growth since the early pandemic.

“The slowdown in U.S. population growth is largely due to a historic decline in net international migration, which dropped from 2.7 million to 1.3 million in the period from July 2024 through June 2025,” said Christine Hartley, Census assistant division chief for Estimates and Projections. “With births and deaths remaining relatively stable compared to the prior year, the sharp decline in net international migration is the main reason for the slower growth rate we see today.”

Populations of the U.S., all four census regions and every state except Montana and West Virginia saw their growth slow or their decline accelerate in 2025, the Census said in a release.

The slowdown comes after a 1% population jump in 2024, the Census stated, the fastest annual growth since 2006.

For Massachusetts, according to a report from the Pioneer Institute based on the Census data, growth is “now entirely dependent on immigration.”

“Absent immigration, Massachusetts would already be losing population,” said Aidan Enright, Pioneer’s economic research associate and author of the report. “Domestic out-migration rose again in 2025, and that’s a clear signal that the state is becoming less competitive as a place to live, work, and do business.”

From 2022 through 2024, the Pioneer report states, Massachusetts averaged over 76,000 net international migrants per year, driven largely by an “unprecedented surge in humanitarian immigration.” In 2025, the number of new immigrants dropped to just over 40,000, about the same as pre-pandemic averages.

As immigration drops, Pioneer stated, Massachusetts lost more than double — over 33,000 — the number of residents than it added in 2025, a number “far above the state’s historic average.”

Pioneer argued the out-migration is due to “weak job growth, high costs, and an uncompetitive business climate,” and the trends were “temporarily masked” by immigration influxes. The report cites data showing the state is one of four with fewer private-sector jobs than before the pandemic and has fallen behind national average GDP growth for “several consecutive quarters.”

The dependence on net international migration in Massachusetts reflects similar trends in several northeastern coastal states, including Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island, according to Census analysis.

Each had negative net domestic migration and more international migration than positive natural change from births and deaths, the data show.

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The Pioneer report argues the population trends call for policy to address housing affordability, cost-of-living pressures, taxes, and business climate.

“With an aging population and low natural population growth, Massachusetts cannot afford to lose residents to other states,” Pioneer states. “As federal policy aims to reduce immigration further in 2026, the Commonwealth faces growing risk that population stagnation will translate into slower growth, tighter labor markets, and diminished economic opportunity.”