EL PASO, Texas (EL PASO MATTERS) — El Paso County’s population grew by 0.1% in 2024, the slowest growth rate among Texas’ 10 most populous counties, according to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau Thursday.
El Paso’s stagnant population is being driven by a continuing exodus of residents to other U.S. counties, a drop in the number of people being born in El Paso, and a sharp increase in deaths since the COVID-19 pandemic, Census Bureau data shows.
The county had 875,784 people as of July 1, 2024, an increase of 948 over a year earlier, according to the estimates. The population estimates released Thursday are for counties; the Census Bureau will release population estimates for cities later this year.
Since the last census in 2020, El Paso County’s population has grown by just over 10,000 people, or 1.2%, according to the estimates. That’s also the slowest population growth among Texas’ largest counties.
El Paso’s sluggish population growth in 2024 came at a time when other large metropolitan areas in the country were seeing population growth stronger than the national average of 1% since 2023, according to the Census Bureau.
El Paso County’s population challenges
In 2024, El Paso County experienced a net loss of more than 7,300 people in people coming or going to or from other U.S. counties, according to the Census Bureau. Since the 2020 census, the net loss has been 17,702, according to the estimates.
Between 2010 and 2019, El Paso County averaged an annual loss of about 6,000 people in domestic migration. The last year El Paso County saw a net gain in domestic migration was 2011, when Fort Bliss was expanding.
A sharp decline in births, and a rise in deaths in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, also has contributed to El Paso’s population stagnation.
From 2010-19, El Paso County averaged more than 13,000 births a year, according to Census Bureau estimates. From 2021-24, the average was just over 11,000 births annually, 15% lower than the average in the prior decade.
The county averaged about 5,100 deaths a year between 2010-19. Since 2021, the average has been about 7,300 deaths a year, a 43% increase over the prior decade.
The impact of immigration
The primary reason El Paso County has seen even small population growth has been net international migration, the movement between El Paso and other countries. El Paso County had a net gain of more than 4,300 people in international migration last year, according to the Census Bureau estimates.
Between 2010 and 2019, El Paso had an average gain in international migration of 1,932 people a year, according to Census Bureau estimates.
International migration was the biggest driver of population gains in large metropolitan areas last year, the Census Bureau said.
“Increasingly, population growth in metro areas is being shaped by international migration,” Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Census Bureau’s Population Division, said in a statement. “While births continue to contribute to overall growth, rising net international migration is offsetting the ongoing net domestic outmigration we see in many of these areas.”
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