For more than a decade, Idaho has consistently ranked high among the fastest growing states in the nation in critical categories like population growth and job creation. Newly released long-term industry projections from the Idaho Department of Labor show that the state is anticipated to maintain this position of strength and enjoy robust economic growth in the coming decade. With a forecasted annualized growth rate of 1.3%, Idaho is expected to grow significantly faster than the rest of the nation. In contrast, the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics expects employment in the U.S. to grow at only 0.3% annually – less than a quarter of Idaho’s expected growth rate.

The broader context of America’s shifting demographic structures have created an environment in which growth rates can vary drastically from state to state. In recent decades, falling birth rates have led to increasingly slower population growth in the U.S. and an aging population, owing to the relative shortage of young Americans compared to the growing retiree population. As a result, the main driver of population growth for individual states is no longer natural growth (family formation and births), but rather in-migration, either from other states or from foreign countries.

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