Suburbs contribute to Illinois' population decline

Illinois lost more people than any other state over the year ending July 1, continuing a plunge that dropped it to sixth place in population, behind Pennsylvania.

However, Illinois' 33,703-person decline was a 0.3 percent drop, compared to Wyoming's 1.0 percent decline, the largest percentage decrease in population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's national and state population estimates released Wednesday.

Census figures released earlier this year show population declines in Chicago and most suburbs, which collectively lost nearly 14,000 people from 2014 to 2016 after gaining almost 51,000 residents from 2010 to 2014.

In the suburbs, decreases were sharpest in Cook County. Towns including Rosemont, Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village, Mount Prospect and Hoffman Estates experienced declines of a full percent or more from 2014 to 2016.

The fastest growing state was Idaho, where the population increased 2.2 percent to 1.7 million.

The nation's population grew 0.72 percent to 325.7 million.

Brian Harger, a research associate at Northern Illinois University's Center for Governmental Studies, told the Chicago Sun-Times a decline means the state has the potential to lose federal funding or seats in the U.S. House.

The new census figures show states following Idaho for the largest percentage increases in population were Nevada (2.0 percent), Utah (1.9 percent), Washington (1.7 percent) and Florida along with Arizona (1.6 percent).

"Domestic migration drove change in the two fastest-growing states, Idaho and Nevada, while an excess of births over deaths played a major part in the growth of the third fastest-growing state, Utah," said Luke Rogers, chief of the census bureau's Population Estimates Branch.

Net international migration decreased 1.8 percent from 2016 to 2017, making it the first drop since 2012-2013. However, net international migration continues to be a significant factor in the population growth of the United States, adding just over 1.1 million people in the last year.