Over the past five years, the state of Louisiana has had several reasons for people to make a different choice when it comes to calling our state home. We've had devastating floods and a drop in oil prices. Both of those items could have created a major shift in population in the state.

However, newly released data from the United States Census Bureau suggest that shift in Louisiana's population really hasn't happened. Louisiana saw a 3% change over the 2010 to 2016 time period. Meanwhile, the nation as a whole changed more than 4% from 2010 to 2016, while the southern region changed about 6.5%.

Those statistics come courtesy of demographer Greg Rigamer as reported by the Louisiana Radio Network. While they do show a small growth in the state's population the underlying facts seem to indicate the positive change might not be as positive as the numbers suggest.

We’re not keeping up with our peers throughout the South. So I do think you see some of that ‘out migration,’ not as much that would result in a population loss when you look at the natural inherent growth in the state.

In the national ranking of population loss and or growth the state maintained it's position of being right in the middle.  Louisiana was ranked 25th in that statistic in 2010 and we remain 25th in the most recent survey data. The census data shows the state’s population has increased by about 12,000 residents since 2015.

 

 

More From 97.3 The Dawg