Oregon seems to remain popular with out-of-towners as new residents fuel the Beaver State’s population growth.

The latest annual population estimate from Portland State University shows 41,000 more people now live in Oregon than last year, bringing the total population to over 4.2 million.

Of those tens of thousands of new Oregonians, 86%, or about 35,000, moved here from somewhere else. That’s far more than the people who entered the state fresh from the womb. Oregon’s population is aging, the university’s Population Research Center said in a Friday announcement, and birth rates are declining. Only 6,000 more people were born over the last year than died.

The numbers are preliminary and won’t finalized until Dec. 15.

Unsurprisingly, much of the population growth happened in Oregon’s three largest counties – Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas, with 18,000 new people in total. The next three counties on the list were Deschutes, which grew by about 4,000 residents, and Lane and Marion counties, which grew by about 3,800 and 3,700 residents, respectively.

Portland grew 1.3 percent since 2018, to 657,100 people. Salem had the second largest population growth in Oregon, with about 2,000 new people. Bend and Eugene both added more than 1,500 residents.

Portland State publishes population estimates every year. The numbers are based on a variety of factors, including births and deaths, employment numbers and housing units.

-- Fedor Zarkhin

fzarkhin@oregonian.com

desk: 503-294-7674|cell: 971-373-2905|@fedorzarkhin

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