REGION — According to the U.S. Census Bureau New York State lost more people than any other in 2019. The population count in the Empire State dropped by 76,790. In Pennsylvania there was a slight increase of some 68 residents. Both states remained in the top 10 in terms of population with New York at 19,453,561 residents and Pennsylvania at 12,801,989.

Overall, 42 states and the District of Columbia had fewer births in 2019 than 2018, while eight states saw a birth increase. With fewer births in recent years and the number of deaths increasing, natural increase (or births minus deaths) has declined steadily in the U.S. over the past decade.

“While natural increase is the biggest contributor to the U.S. population increase, it has been slowing over the last five years,” said Dr. Sandra Johnson, a demographer and statistician in the population division of the Census Bureau. “Natural increase, or when the number of births is greater than the number of deaths, dropped below 1 million in 2019 for the first time in decades.”

The total population of the U.S. grew by about 1.5 million between 2018 and 2019, which has been slowing since 2015.