“'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."

The impact of declining births and a drift toward private education will have a significant impact on K-12 enrollment, according to Hamilton Lombard, a demographer at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center. Lombard and his team presented their findings to the State Senate Finance and Appropriations Subcommittee for K-12 Education. 

Nationally, we projected the 2020 U.S. population to be 332,527,548, which is a bit more than the Census count of 331,449,281, representing a difference of 0.33%. 

“At this moment, there have been about 240,000 COVID deaths,” Sen said Thursday, “but between now and tomorrow the death toll will have risen to perhaps 243,000 or higher...”

“The current way of defining and measuring majority and minority groups for the future population is likely to be considered outdated...,” Cai said