If it feels like Texas is getting crowded, you're right!New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show that the state's population has surged past 28-million, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter says it is not just from people moving here.
"We have a very healthy rate of natural increase, meaning more births than deaths," he tells Newsradio 1200 WOAI. "That accounts for more than half of the population change we saw this past year."
The Texas population, which sits at 28,304,596, is second only to California, which boats 39,536,653 residents. The next two largest states remain Florida and New York, but Pennsylvania has overtaken Illinois, which continues to see their residents flee.
Potter says in-migration accounted for about 20-percent of Texas's growth.
"The big senders have been California and then New York."
When it comes to numeric growth, the new Census Bureau numbers show Texas added 399,734 new residents between 2016 and 2017. That's the most of any state. And, with a young population, he predicts the growth in Texas's population to continue.