Oregon’s 2018 Natural Population Increase Was the Lowest on Record

In 2018, Oregon’s population increased by 54,200 to 4,195,300. This marked growth of 1.3 percent over the year, and growth of 9.5 percent since the 2010 Census. Portland State University’s Population Research Center recently released more detailed information on why this population growth has occurred.

There are two main reasons that lead to population change. First, an area increases in population if more births than deaths occur in a given year or vice versa. Second, population can increase or decrease through net migration. That is, over the year, people either move into or out of an area. A positive value of net migration means more people moving into an area than leaving it, while a negative value of net migration indicates more people leaving an area than moving in.

In 2018, natural increase contributed 6,600 to population growth, which was the lowest since comparable records began in 1960. The low natural increase is caused by an increase in the number of deaths (36,200), which was the second highest total since 1960 after 2017. In 2017, there were 36,800 deaths in Oregon. Since 2011, Oregon had a relatively low natural increase compared with the prior four decades. A lot of Oregon’s population increase in 2018 was due to net migration, which at 47,600 people was one of the largest net migrations since 1996.

To learn more about Oregon's population change, read the article by projections economist Felicia Bechtoldt.