78% of All Nebraska Counties Saw Their Populations Shrink This Decade

The U.S. Census Bureau released another set of population estimates this week, providing population data on the county level.

Nebraska’s population growth occurred mostly in the most populous counties – Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy – with those three counties adding nearly 120,000 Nebraskans from 2010 to 2020. Only 19 other counties saw their population estimates grow, with every other county losing dozens, and in some instances thousands, of people.

Lincoln and Scotts Bluff counties saw the largest decreases, with both counties losing about 2,000 people each.

Over the past decade, about 25,000 people are born a year in Nebraska, and about 16,000 people die. The fluctuation in growth comes from international and domestic immigration. International immigration in the state peaked in 2016 with more than 6,000 people moving in, but in each subsequent year, that number has decreased, falling to below 2,000 in 2020.

Domestic outmigration has also increased in the second half of the 2010s, increasing five fold in 2020 with more than 5,000 Nebraskans moving to a different state, compared to a little over 1,000 in 2011.

This release is just the latest in a slew of new data being compiled by the bureau. Their efforts in the 2020 decennial census were stymied by the pandemic, leading to delays that will cause some political headaches as states must redraw their congressional districts based off of the new figures.

The U.S. Census calculates population estimates by using the previous year’s population estimate, adding births, subtracting deaths, and adding or subtracting the net migration in a given geography.

These figures are calculated through various other governmental agencies datasets such as tax returns, Medicare enrollment and new Social Security Numbers issued.