Hello, 9 million!

After years of flirtation, New Jersey's population has officially hit the 9 million mark.

That's according to the latest annual Census estimates for state populations. While New Jersey has the 11th-highest population in the country, it ranks fairly low in terms of population growth at a weak 0.3 percent from 2016 to 2017. The national average was 0.7 percent, according to the Census.

And while New Jersey ranks fifth in the nation in the number of people moving here from other countries, it has the fourth-highest loss of U.S.-born residents fleeing the state.

Natural change -- births and deaths -- were relatively balanced. Roughly 102,000 people were added from births, which outnumbered the 74,111 deaths. But fertility in the state has been dropping since the recession, Census data shows, suggesting that trend may not hold.

The states with the fastest growth? For that you have to look west to Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Washington. At the same time, five states shrank during the past year: Wyoming, West Virginia, Illinois, Hawaii and Alaska, which all lost population.

Erin Petenko may be reached at epetenko@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @EPetenko. Find NJ.com on Facebook.