New U.S. Census figures show North Carolina's economic and educational strengths are directly linked to the fast growth of its population.
North Carolina's population grew by 1.3% to 11.2 million people as of July 1, 2025, half of a decade since the 2020 Census, according to the 2025 Vintage Population estimates released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.
This growth is driven by domestic migration due to North Carolina's competitive economic appeal and other factors, according to state demographers.
The state was ranked third nationally in population increase rates, next to Idaho at a 1.4% rate and neighboring, South Carolina, which had the highest rate in the U.S. at 1.5%.
It's no longer a secret that North Carolina is a great place to live, according to Gov. Josh Stein.
“Our strong economic growth, natural beauty, and good people are attracting others from around the country,” Stein said in a statement Friday.
In his statement, Stein also added a call for the Republican-controlled General Assembly to pass a state budget that retains teachers and law enforcement officers, in order "to make North Carolina the best place to live, work, and raise a family.”
NC grows, but more slowly as international migration drops
The growth in North Carolina wasn't driven by international migration to the U.S., which dropped historically from 2.7 million to 1.3 million in the period from July 2024 through June 2025, the Census data release shows.
But the lower international migration rates did decrease the rate of population growth in North Carolina, according to a report by state demographer Michael Cline of the Office of State Budget and Management: the population growth increase as of July 1, 2025 dropped significantly from the net gain of 104,000 domestic migrants the state experienced between July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2021.
North Carolina's latest population projections predict the state’s growth will be around 1.3 million throughout the decade.
"Even with slowing growth, North Carolina’s population is likely to surpass the population sizes of Georgia and Ohio early next decade to become the 7th largest state in the nation," according to Cline's report.
Triangle education rates fastest growing in U.S.
This week, the Census Bureau also released its American Communities Survey 5-year estimates, showing widespread data of U.S. population characteristics from 2020 through 2024.
A key data highlight of the ACS is educational attainment, in which the Durham Chapel-Hill metro area saw the largest increase in the nation, according to the new five-year estimates.
The rate of adults age 25 with a bachelor's degree or higher increased in the Durham-Chapel Hill metro area by eight percentage points to 53.4%, compared to the previous ACS estimates from 2015 to 2019.
"It's a function of talented, educated people moving in and also homegrown talent development," said Nathan Dollar, director of Carolina Demography. "There are widespread bipartisan efforts across the state to increase educational attainment, and lots of aggressive workforce development programs and strategies that appear to be bearing fruit."
The Raleigh-Cary metro also saw an increase, albeit a smaller one, of about four percentage points to about 51% across the same timeframe.
Educational attainment grew across the board. This metric grew significantly among Black and Latino adults ages 25 and over, who generally have lower education attainment rates, across both of the Raleigh and Durham metros.
Their rates grew to about 35% and 25% in both regions, respectively, which is a four-point increase in the Raleigh-Cary metro, and a significant seven-point jump in Durham-Chapel Hill.
