Indiana’s population grew by 0.4% in 2023, adding 29,925 residents and increasing to 6.86 million people, according to the Indiana Business Research Center and U.S. Census Bureau.
Last year’s population gain is nearly the same as the state’s average annual increase before the pandemic, which was 30,170 residents per year from 2010-2020.
“Indiana’s growth was fueled by another year of exceptionally high net in-migration,” Indiana Business Research Center Senior Demographer Matt Kinghorn said in an IU press release.
Indiana’s 23 rural counties combined for 0.2% growth in 2023, up from the 2.3% decrease the counties saw from 2010-2020.
The counties’ growth included a combined net inflow of nearly 1,630 residents, which surpassed per capita net migration rates of Indiana’s 44 metro-area and 25 micropolitan counties.
Rural counties added 3.6 residents per 1,000 residents, metro-area counties added 3.4 residents and micropolitan counties added 2.7 residents.
The Indianapolis metro area, which includes 11 counties, added 17,807 residents last year and represented 60% of the state’s net growth. Its total population of 2.14 million accounts for 31% of Indiana’s total population.
Six of the state’s ten fastest-growing counties, Hancock, Boone, Hendricks, Hamilton, Morgan and Johnson, are all in the Indianapolis metro area. Hancock County, which includes Greenfield and New Palestine, grew the most with a 3.7% increase.
Marion County, which includes Indianapolis, shrank 0.1%.
Both the Fort Wayne and Columbus metro areas grew by 0.7% respectively, and the Indiana portion of the Louisville metro area grew by 0.6%.
The Elkhart-Goshen metro area shrank 0.2%, and both the Bloomington and Michigan City metro areas shrank 0.1% each.
Growth rates in metro areas in neighboring states varied. The Cincinnati metro area grew by 0.6%, and the Louisville metro area grew by 0.3%.
The Cleveland and Detroit metro areas each shrank 0.1%, and the Chicago metro area shrank 0.2%.
