Nevada reprised its role as second-fastest growing state by population percentage this year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

And at an estimated 2,998,039 people, only 1,961 need to move or be born for Nevada to reach a total population of 3 million.

Though many states have much higher populations, Nevada is growing at 2 percent per year, keeping pace with the fastest growing state: Idaho (2.2 percent growth).

Following Idaho and Nevada are 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,” Luke Rogers, Chief of the Population Estimates Branch, said in a news release.

States in the South and West continued to lead in population growth.

In 2017, 38 percent of the nation’s population lived in the South and 23.8 percent lived in the West. But about 1.5 percent of Nevada's growth comes from people leaving other parts of the country or world while only half a percent comes from new births.

In the last 100 years, Nevada stayed on the list of fastest growing states except during the Great Depression and the most recent recession, according to Census data.

Wyoming had the largest population decline of 1 percent, according to the Census.

Mike Higdon is the city life reporter at the RGJ and can be found on Instagram @MillennialMike, on Facebook at Mike Higdon, Reno Life and on Twitter @MikeHigdon.