Newly released data from the U.S. Census shows Connecticut’s population increased slightly over the last 10 years, with gains mostly driven by growth in the southwest section of the state, specifically Fairfield County.
Connecticut added 31,847 residents between 2010 and 2020, bringing the state’s total population from roughly 3.57 million to 3.6 million.
Fairfield County added 40,590 people, making up for declines in five other counties where the total population fell. The only other counties to see growth through the 2010s were Hartford County and New Haven County.
Stamford, which gained almost 13,000 new residents, surpassed New Haven to become Connecticut’s second-largest city, behind Bridgeport.
The decennial census does not indicate what forces drive population gains or losses, but it is likely that the COVID-19 pandemic — which prompted hundreds of thousands of people to leave the New York City metro area last spring and summer — may have boosted Connecticut’s numbers.
A May study from real estate services firm CBRE, which used change-of-address data from the U.S. Postal Service, calculated that about 27,200 people moved to Connecticut from the New York-Newark-Jersey City region in 2020. Around 17,300 of those transplants settled in Fairfield County.
The latest census figures also indicate that Connecticut is more diverse than it was in 2010.
The state’s population of non-Hispanic whites dropped by 10%, while the Hispanic population climbed by 30% and the Asian population grew by 27%.
According to Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, who oversaw the population count in Connecticut, the state had among the highest total census response rates in the country, at 99.9%, and improved its self-response rate from 69% in 2010 to 70% in 2020.
“By producing the most complete count possible, the 2020 census results will bring billions of dollars in federal resources to Connecticut for education, healthcare, transportation and more,” Bysiewicz said.
