While Wyoming’s overall population grew slightly between 2018 and 2019, Park County and the rest of the Big Horn Basin shrunk, according to new estimates.

Figures released recently by the U.S. Census Bureau say Park County had 29,194 residents as of last July. That’s 16 fewer people than are believed to have been living here in July 2018, representing a fractional, 0.1% decline.

According to the estimates, Park County had more births (283) than deaths (271) over the year-long period, but those gains were erased by more people moving out of the area than moved in; subtracting departures from arrivals, the bureau says the net effect was that 26 people left the county for someplace else.

Meanwhile, neighboring Hot Springs (4,413 residents, down 3.4%), Washakie (7,805, -0.9%) and Big Horn (11,790, -0.7%) counties are believed to have experienced more pronounced declines.

Due to their older populations, Hot Springs and Washakie were among “many ... small and rural counties” that saw more deaths than births between 2018 and 2019, said Wenlin Liu, chief economist with the State of Wyoming’s Economic Analysis Division.

The local decreases in the Big Horn Basin came as Wyoming as a whole grew by 0.2%, to an estimated 578,759 residents. That growth was “a reflection of economic improvement during the period,” Liu said.

Between the second quarter of 2018 and the second quarter of 2019, approximately 5,000 jobs were added in the state — representing the largest bump in employment since 2014, he said. The petroleum industry led the economic rebound, Liu said, spurring improvement in construction, manufacturing, transportation services and professional and business services.

Still, Wyoming saw 470 more residents leave the state than come in between the summers of 2018 and 2019. (The overall population rose only because of births.)

Although Census Bureau officials think Park County lost a few residents last year, they estimate that the county has grown since the 2010 Census — adding nearly 1,000 residents for a 3.5% increase in population over the past nine years. During that same period, Big Horn County is believed to have grown by about 1%, while Washakie and Hot Springs counties shrunk significantly (down 8.5% and 8.3%, respectively).

Officials will have more accurate information next year, as the 2020 Census is now underway.