TEXARKANA -- The populations of Bowie County, Texas, and Miller County, Arkansas, decreased from 2020 to 2023.
Those are some of the findings from the 2023 population estimates that the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The estimates show where people migrated to, if they moved domestically or from abroad, and where births outpaced deaths or vice versa.
From an estimated 92,923 as of July 1, 2020, Bowie County's population fell to 91,687 -- a loss of 1,236 people -- by the same date in 2023.
Census estimates show 685 more deaths than births in Bowie County, as well as 575 more people leaving than moving in, between April 1, 2020, and July 1, 2023.
Between July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2023, Miller County's population also decreased, from 42,588 to 42,415, a loss of 173.
Miller County had an estimated 373 more deaths than births between April 1, 2020, and July 1, 2023, while 160 more people moved in than left.
Other census findings include that counties in the U.S. South continued to grow last year, as those in the Northeast and Midwest lost population.
Atlanta jumped two spots over Washington and Philadelphia to become the sixth most populous metro area. And Harris County, Texas, home to Houston, grew by more people than any U.S. county, primarily due to births outpacing deaths.
The population estimates are used to help allocate federal spending, guide other surveys on U.S. population and provide insights for planners and businesses about where to build schools, hospitals and stores.
They traditionally use as their base the once-a-decade census, which in this case is the 2020 census.
Because the 2020 census was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, other data sources were used to create the foundation. From there, the Census Bureau added data from birth and death records obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics and state agencies.
To calculate changes due to domestic migration, the Census Bureau used records from the IRS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Social Security Administration.
To figure out international migration, the Census Bureau relied on records from the Defense Manpower Data Center, the Bureau of Consular Affairs, the Refugee Processing Center, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, among other agencies, as well as its most comprehensive survey, the American Community Survey.