Since April of 2020, just as fears of the Covid pandemic were leading to lockdowns and worries across the country, nearly 2,000 more people have moved into Park County than have moved out.

According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, through July 2024, the population of Park County has grown by 1,458 people, a 4.9% increase. The increase more than offsets the fact that, without migration, the county would be losing people due to more deaths than births each year.

However, migration has slowed. From July 2023 to July 2024, the net increase to the population was just 0.8%. While 59 more people died than were born in Park County, 323 more people moved in than moved out.

The throttling down in the rate of move ins has been felt all across the county, especially in real estate. Still, the large influx of new people since 2020 is what spurred the county to renew its drive to adopt a new land use plan and new regulations from it to address allowable land uses in certain areas going forward.

"A drive from Pueblo to Fort Collins [on the Colorado Front Range] tells you what the future of Park County looks like,” said Dan White, a Cody resident, while speaking during the public hearing to approve the land use plan, about his concerns as to what would happen if regulations were not changed. 

And many of the new residents, coming from places such as Colorado and California which have experienced astronomical growth in the past, have likewise expressed a desire to ensure more growth doesn't change their new hometowns.

Park County's slower rise has followed that of the state as a whole. As of July 2024, Wyoming’s resident population reached 587,618, reflecting a moderate growth, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.  This meant an annual increase of 2,551 individuals, or 0.4%, which is lower than the national growth rate of 1% observed from July 2023, according to a release from the Wyoming Economic Analysis Division.

Eleven counties experienced population increases from July 2023 to July 2024.  Crook County led the state with the fastest growth rate (2.4%), followed by Albany (1.7%) and Sheridan (1.2%) counties. Niobrara and Washakie counties experienced the steepest decreases, minus 1.1% and minus 1%, respectively.  Laramie and Natrona counties, the only two Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the state, grew moderately at 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively. 

There are two factors that contribute to population change: natural change from vital events and net migration from people’s movement. The natural change, calculated as 6,037 births minus 5,634 deaths, was 403. The estimated net migration — defined as in-migration minus out-migration — was 2,146, indicating that 2,146 more persons moved into Wyoming than moved out of the state between July 2023 and July 2024. In contrast, for the previous two years, net migration was 3,000 and 2,778, respectively.

“Following an extraordinary event in 2021, when deaths surpassed births during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wyoming has since experienced a positive natural change,” said Dr. Wenlin Liu, chief economist with the State of Wyoming, Economic Analysis Division. Nevertheless, the ongoing decrease in the fertility rate (births per 1,000 females aged 15-44) and the aging of the baby boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1964) have significantly reduced the population growth from natural increase compared to pre-pandemic levels. In recent years, the natural change has averaged around 400 annually, which is just a small fraction of the 1,446 recorded in 2019 and 3,015 a decade earlier.  Across the state, approximately half of the counties showed negative natural change (more deaths than births), and most of them are small and rural counties such as Hot Springs, Johnson, Niobrara, and Platte where nearly 30% of their population was 65 years and over. In contrast, Campbell, Albany, and Laramie counties experienced large natural increases in 2024.     

The state experienced nearly six consecutive years of negative net migration (more people left than moved into the state) between 2014 and 2019 due to the energy downturn.  However, the direction of net migration has since reversed.  

“Employment opportunities driven by the energy sector have long been a key factor in Wyoming's migration trends, but the pandemic significantly influenced this dynamic in recent years,” Liu said.  This pandemic-induced migration pattern (relocation from large cities with high costs to less populated, lower-cost areas) has somewhat slowed down across the country. 

Since the April 1, 2020 Census, Wyoming’s population has increased by 10,774 or 1.9%, which is slower than the U.S. rate of 2.6%. Crook and Lincoln counties demonstrated the fastest growth, 8.3% and 7.2%, respectively, while Albany and Sheridan counties added the most residents, over 2,000 each. Sweetwater County lost the most population (minus 997, or minus 2.4%).