With more deaths than births, most of Palm Beach County’s growth in the past year came from overseas, new Census Bureau estimates show.

Palm Beach County had 1,485,941 residents as of July 2018, figures publicly released Wednesday show. That figure is higher than the population of 11 states, including Hawaii, New Hampshire and Maine, but lower than Idaho.

Palm Beach County grew by 15,603 people from July 2017 to July 2018, the estimates show. Of Florida’s other 66 counties, only Orange, Hillsborough, Polk, Broward and Miami-Dade added more residents.

Palm Beach County remains the third most populous county in Florida. But Hillsborough County, population 1.44 million, is slowly closing the gap. The county that Tampa residents call home has about 49,000 fewer people than Palm Beach County, down from about 91,000 in April 2010.

Florida, the nation’s third largest state behind Texas and California, is now estimated to be home to about 21.3 million people, with 2.7 million living in Miami-Dade and 1.9 million in Broward. About three in 10 Floridians call South Florida home, a ratio that has not budged since 2010.

The numbers come from estimates based on births, deaths and migration and are not part of the national census undertaken every 10 years. That count begins next year, with April 1, 2020, considered Census Day. The annual estimates do not cover cities and other smaller areas.

Palm Beach County’s one-year growth rate in 2018, slightly more than 1 percent, was higher than Broward and Miami-Dade counties. It was down from 1.3 percent the previous year.

Although Palm Beach County continues to grow faster than its South Florida peers, the trend has slowed since 2016, when the county grew by nearly 27,000 people. It dropped to about 19,000 in 2017.

In 2016, births outnumbered deaths. But since then, the trend has reversed. In 2018, the bureau reported 679 more deaths than births in Palm Beach County, up from 84 more the year before.

The 2018 numbers for the county: 15,455 deaths and 14,776 births.

Palm Beach County ranked 17th in the nation for population growth rate of all counties with at least 1 million residents, behind Fulton County, Ga.,home to Atlanta, and ahead of Hennepin County, Minn., home to Minneapolis. Collin County, Texas, which broke the 1 million mark in 2018, ranked No. 1 nationwide for population growth rate.

Almost 13,000 of Palm Beach County’s new residents in 2018 came from Puerto Rico or outside the United States, making the county the No. 4 destination in Florida for such migrants for the eighth year in a row, behind Miami-Dade, Broward and Orange counties.

Palm Beach County shared the No. 1 spot with Lee County in 2013 as the most popular Florida county for people moving from elsewhere within the country. But Palm Beach County has since dropped to 22nd place.

Although Palm Beach County matched Florida in population growth rate as late as 2016, the county has since slipped below the state average of 1.5 percent in 2018.

More than 162,000 people have been born in Palm Beach County or moved here since 2010, when the Census Bureau counted more than 1.3 million residents.

cpersaud@pbpost.com

@chrismpersaud