According to the Connecticut State Data Center at UConn, Connecticut’s population growth is slowing compared to other states in the region.
The Center is predictinga growth rate of 1.7 percent from 2015 to 2040, compared to more than 10 percent growth in Massachusetts and 7 percent in Vermont.
Patrick Flaherty, an economist at the state Department of Labor, says a big factor is that fewer children are being born in Connecticut.
“We’re going to a see a decline in the number of school-aged children, but that is not due to migration. That’s due to the fact that the birth rate has been very low since the Great Recession. When the great recession hit in 2007- 2008, the birth rate declined precipitously and really has not recovered at all.”
Flaherty says at the same time, older Connecticut residents are leaving the state.
“If we actually stopped out-migration from Connecticut, the population would age even more rapidly because in fact the out-migration that we’re seeing really is concentrated in those older age groups.”
Flaherty says Connecticut’s population growth rate is projected to be higher in the cities. For example, Bridgeport is expected to see a growth rate of 6 percent, compared to the 1.7 percent state average.