New U.S. Census figures show Colorado had the country's eighth-fastest growing population this year.
The Denver Post reported Wednesday that Colorado added more than 77,000 residents this past year, bringing its total population to just over 5.6 million as of July 1.
The Census estimates that about 30,000 of those residents came from natural increases, or the difference between births and deaths. The remainder is estimated to have come from net migration, or the difference between people moving into the state and those leaving it.
The influx of residents was lower than last year, when the state's population increased by 90,000. The jump was even bigger the year before, at about 100,000.
The Casper Star-Tribune reports, using the same U.S. Census data, that Wyoming lost more than 6,600 residents since the energy bust began in 2015.
About 6,000 of those residents left between July 2016 and July 2017. Wyoming's population decrease was 1 percent. That's the largest decline there since 1989.
Wenlin Liu, chief economist at the Economic Analysis Division, says healthy economies in neighboring states like Idaho and Colorado are impacting whether Wyoming residents stay or leave.
The Census found that the states with the top population growth between July 2016 and July 2017 were Idaho, Nevada and then Utah.
