Fifty-seven of Michigan’s 83 counties saw population gains from 2020 to 2025, with west Michigan and northern Michigan leading the way. (Josh Boland/Bridge Michigan)

(This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. Visit the newsroom online: bridgemi.com.)

Since 2020, Michigan has added nearly 56,000 residents, but that growth was not evenly distributed across the state.

Most Michigan counties gained residents over the last half-decade, especially those in west and northern Michigan. But 26 counties — mostly concentrated in the Thumb — lost residents, according to newly released U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

The state’s growth has been entirely driven by its ability to attract residents from other parts of the country and world. Deaths exceeded births each of the last five years, the Census figures show, but inbound migration from other states and countries has exceeded outbound each year since 2022.

Jaclyn Butler, Michigan’s state demographer, said the rise in remote work since the coronavirus pandemic has allowed more people to live where they want.

“We have so many lakes, we have the north woods,” Butler said. “We have high amenities and those are the type of areas that, after covid, with remote and hybrid work, those are the areas that grew the most.”

Here’s a look at five things the latest census figures tell us about Michigan:

Most counties added population

Fifty-seven of Michigan’s 83 counties saw population gains from 2020 to 2025, and 47 of them saw growth between 2024 and 2025.

The state’s fastest-growing county was northern Michigan’s Lake County, which added 1,096 residents between 2020 and 2025, a 9% increase. The fastest-shrinking county was the Thumb’s Huron County, which lost 848 residents for a nearly 3% decline.

In raw numbers, Kent County added the most residents, with nearly 17,000 gained, a 2.5% increase. Wayne County lost the most, down more than 20,000 residents, a 1% decrease.

Up North is growing

Northern Michigan remains among the least-populated regions of the state, but it is among the fastest-growing.

The 39 counties north of the Mason County-to-Arenac County line picked up nearly 13,000 residents between 2020 and 2025, a 1.5% increase. Only west Michigan grew faster.

The six fastest-growing counties over the past five years — Lake, Montmorency, Keweenaw, Oscoda, Crawford and Antrim — all were Up North.

Butler, the state demographer, said in addition to remote work making it possible for residents to live in the rural north without giving up their jobs, many Baby Boomers reaching retirement age are moving to their Up North cabins and lake cottages.

Northern Michigan saw a net of more than 5,400 people move to the region last year, the third-most in the state.

West Michigan still leads in growth

West Michigan remains the fastest-growing region in the state, picking up more than 43,000 residents between 2020 and 2025 for a nearly 2% growth rate.

Regional economic development group The Right Place has made it a top priority to attract workers to the region by focusing on health care, manufacturing and tech jobs.

West Michigan saw net migration of more than 7,500 residents last year, second only to southeast Michigan.

The Thumb is shrinking fastest

The Thumb region lost more than 2,500 residents over the past five years, a state-leading 0.5% decline. Huron County led the losses, but Bay and Tuscola counties were among the 10 states with the largest losses.

The Thumb region had the state’s smallest net migration last year.

The only other region in the state to shrink was mid-Michigan, which lost 270 residents, or 0.02%.

Michigan gained population slowly

Michigan, which still has a population of about 10.1 million, grew by 0.6% from 2020 to 2025, according to the census data.

From 2024 to 2025, the state grew about 0.3%, 36th in the nation and below the national rate.

Last year, lawmakers defunded the office Gov. Gretchen Whitmer created to try to boost the state’s population.