“'Historically, the statewide growth rate has fluctuated over the decades, and this slower pace of growth is not unanticipated given the nature of the current demographic trends of lower births, higher deaths and fewer people moving in,'” said Shonel Sen, senior demographer from the Cooper Center’s Demographics Research Group."

"Hamilton Lombard, who works for the demographics research group at the University of Virginia, said Portsmouth has seen some decline over the last few years. But he said population growth across Hampton Roads in general has been lagging areas like Richmond and Northern Virginia, and also the southeastern region of the U.S."

"Previous studies have shown that fertility rates dropped during the pandemic, but they didn’t really look at the differences across states. Adelman and her colleagues analyzed changes in fertility rates in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. during the pandemic’s first two waves. To do so, they used data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 2020 U.S. Census and the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, which estimated state populations nine months after each COVID wave in 2021."