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Overview
Demographics provide an understanding of population size and composition by characteristics such as age, gender, and race.
What's Happening
- After five years of continuous growth (2010-2015), North Dakota’s population remained relatively unchanged from 2015 to 2017. However, from 2017 to 2018, North Dakota’s population increased by 4,901 people.
- The county with the highest population change from 2010-2018 was McKenzie with a 114.3 percent increase. The largest decrease in population during the same time period was found in Nelson County which experienced a 8.2 percent loss.
- From 2010 to 2018, the population of color in North Dakota grew at a higher pace than the U.S. (64.4% growth in North Dakota as compared to 16.3% growth in the U.S.). During this same time period the White (non-Hispanic) North Dakota population grew by 6.6 percent as compared to the national growth rate for the White (non-Hispanic) population at 0.1 percent.
- North Dakota had ranked 3rd in the nation in 2017 for lowest percentage of individuals with a disability at 10.3 percent; however, in 2018, North Dakota dropped to 6th place with 10.9 percent of individuals having a disability.
Making connections
The population growth in the state, especially among young adults, has strengthened North Dakota’s workforce and revitalized the state’s natural increase through more births. This will have long-term implications for the state. One important consequence will be a growing demand for housing, especially in western North Dakota where energy development activity has overwhelmed existing housing stock. The greatly expanding number of births will increase the number of children and youth in the state, thereby creating increased demand for childcare and educational facilities. On the other end of the age spectrum, the leading edge of the baby boom cohort moved into the 65 year old bracket which has long-term implications for health providers. These and other issues need to be monitored over time.