International immigration drove Indiana's growth last year, not births, analysis says
Indiana's population swelled to just under 7 million residents last year — but international immigration accounted for most of the growth, according to a Thursday Indiana University analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
The 44,144 residents added in 2024 represent Indiana's largest one-year increase since 2008. The Hoosier state's population totaled 6.92 million.
'While the size of Indiana's growth in 2024 was similar to 2008, the drivers of change in these years were drastically different,' said Matt Kinghorn, senior demographer at IU's Indiana Business Research Center, in a news release.
Natural increase — the difference between births and deaths — was 77% of the state's growth in 2008, according to Kinghorn. But that's flipped.
In 2024, net international immigration of 30,852 residents accounted for 70% of growth.
Net international migration is any change of residence across U.S. borders, per the Census Bureau. It includes those who are foreign-born; who are migrating between the U.S. and Puerto Rico; American citizens migrating to and from the U.S.; and military personnel movement between the U.S. and abroad.
The analysis found immigration particularly prominent in rural and mid-sized counties. The news comes as lawmakers and Gov. Mike Braun are cracking down on illegal immigration.
Seventeen of the state's 23 rural counties — which aren't part of federally designated metropolitan or micropolitan areas — grew last year.
They netted about 1,550 residents through in-migration, but collectively recorded a natural decrease: 716 more deaths than births.
'As in rural Indiana, growth in the state's mid-sized counties has been driven exclusively by a net in-migration of residents,' the analysis reads.
Indiana's 25 mid-sized counties, known as micropolitan areas, had a net inflow of 3,289 residents. But they recorded a natural population decrease of 588.
Urban areas led growth, however.
The 44 Indiana counties that are part of a metropolitan area combined to add 40,667 residents in 2024, accounting for 92% of the state's growth that year. They posted net in-migration of 30,281 residents — and a natural population increase of 10,463.
In total, 73 of the state's 92 counties grew last year. This is the largest number of Indiana counties to show an annual population increase since 1997, Kinghorn said.
Of them, 75 had more people move in than out. But just 30 had more births than deaths, according to the analysis.
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Rural US high schools are offering more college-level classes, but college can still be a tough sell
PERRY, N.Y. -- As a student in western New York's rural Wyoming County, Briar Townes honed an artistic streak that he hopes to make a living from one day. In high school, he clicked with a college-level drawing and painting class. But despite the college credits he earned, college isn't part of his plan. Since graduating from high school in June, he has been overseeing an art camp at the county's Arts Council. If that doesn't turn into a permanent job, there is work at Creative Food Ingredients, known as the 'cookie factory' for the way it makes the town smell like baking cookies, or at local factories like American Classic Outfitters, which designs and sews athletic uniforms. 'My stress is picking an option, not finding an option,' he said. Even though rural students graduate from high school at higher rates than their peers in cities and suburbs, fewer of them go on to college. 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'This is a program that's been in our community for quite some time, and it's a program our community supports,' McLaughlin said. About 15% of rural U.S. high school students were enrolled in college classes in January 2025 through such dual enrollment arrangements, a slightly lower rate than urban and suburban students, an Education Department survey found. Rural access to dual enrollment is a growing area of focus as advocates seek to close gaps in access to higher education. The College in High School Alliance this year announced funding for seven states to develop policy to expand programs for rural students. Around the country, many students feel jaded by the high costs of college tuition. And Americans are increasingly skeptical about the value of college, polls have shown, with Republicans, the dominant party in rural America, losing confidence in higher education at higher rates than Democrats. 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Hamilton Spectator
31 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Rural US high schools are offering more college-level classes, but college can still be a tough sell
PERRY, N.Y. (AP) — As a student in western New York's rural Wyoming County, Briar Townes honed an artistic streak that he hopes to make a living from one day. In high school, he clicked with a college-level drawing and painting class. But despite the college credits he earned, college isn't part of his plan. Since graduating from high school in June, he has been overseeing an art camp at the county's Arts Council. If that doesn't turn into a permanent job, there is work at Creative Food Ingredients, known as the 'cookie factory' for the way it makes the town smell like baking cookies, or at local factories like American Classic Outfitters, which designs and sews athletic uniforms. 'My stress is picking an option, not finding an option,' he said. Even though rural students graduate from high school at higher rates than their peers in cities and suburbs, fewer of them go on to college. 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An American man with a bachelor's degree earns an estimated $900,000 more over his lifetime than a peer with a high school diploma, research by the Social Security Administration has found. For women, the difference is about $630,000. A school takes cues from families' hopes and goals A lack of a college degree is no obstacle to opportunity in places such as Wyoming County, where people like to say there are more cows than people. The dairy farms, potato fields and maple sugar houses are a source of identity and jobs for the county just east of Buffalo. 'College has never really been, I don't know, a necessity or problem in my family,' said Townes, the middle of three children whose father has a tattoo shop in Perry. At Perry High School, Superintendent Daryl McLaughlin said the district takes cues from students like Townes, their families and the community, supplementing college offerings with programs geared toward career and technical fields such as the building trades. He said he is as happy to provide reference checks for employers and the military as he is to write recommendations for college applications. 'We're letting our students know these institutions, whether it is a college or whether employers, they're competing for you,' he said. 'Our job is now setting them up for success so that they can take the greatest advantage of that competition, ultimately, to improve their quality of life.' Still, college enrollment in the district has exceeded the national average in recent years, going from 60% of the class of 2022's 55 graduates to 67% of 2024's and 56% of 2025's graduates. The district points to a decision to direct federal pandemic relief money toward covering tuition for students in its Accelerated College Enrollment program — a partnership with Genesee Community College. When the federal money ran out, the district paid to keep it going. 'This is a program that's been in our community for quite some time, and it's a program our community supports,' McLaughlin said. About 15% of rural U.S. high school students were enrolled in college classes in January 2025 through such dual enrollment arrangements, a slightly lower rate than urban and suburban students, an Education Department survey found. Rural access to dual enrollment is a growing area of focus as advocates seek to close gaps in access to higher education. The College in High School Alliance this year announced funding for seven states to develop policy to expand programs for rural students. Higher education's image problem is acute in rural America Around the country, many students feel jaded by the high costs of college tuition. And Americans are increasingly skeptical about the value of college, polls have shown, with Republicans, the dominant party in rural America, losing confidence in higher education at higher rates than Democrats. 'Whenever you have this narrative that 'college is bad, college is bad, these professors are going to indoctrinate you,' it's hard,' said Andrew Koricich, executive director of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. 'You have to figure out, how do you crack through that information ecosphere and say, actually, people with a bachelor's degree, on average, earn 65% more than people with a high school diploma only?' In much of rural America, about 21% of people over the age of 25 have a bachelor's degree, compared to about 36% of adults in other areas, according to a government analysis of U.S. Census findings. Some rural educators don't hold back on promoting college In rural Putnam County, Florida, about 14% of adults have a bachelor's degree. That doesn't stop principal Joe Theobold from setting and meeting an annual goal of 100% college admission for students at Q.I. Roberts Jr.-Sr. High School. Paper mills and power plants provide opportunities for a middle class life in the county, where the cost of living is low. But Theobold tells students the goal of higher education 'is to go off and learn more about not only the world, but also about yourself.' 'You don't want to be 17 years old, determining what you're going to do for the rest of your life,' he said. Families choose the magnet school because of its focus on higher education, even though most of the district's parents never went to a college. Many students visit college campuses through Camp Osprey, a University of North Florida program that helps students experience college dorms and dining halls. In upstate New York, high school junior Devon Wells grew up on his family farm in Perry but doesn't see his future there. He's considering a career in welding, or as an electrical line worker in South Carolina, where he heard the pay might be double what he would make at home. None of his plans require college, he said. 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Hamilton Spectator
31 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
After a reference to Trump's impeachments is removed from a history museum, complex questions echo
NEW YORK (AP) — It would seem the most straightforward of notions: A thing takes place, and it goes into the history books or is added to museum exhibits. But whether something even gets remembered and how — particularly when it comes to the history of a country and its leader — is often the furthest thing from simple. The latest example of that came Friday, when the Smithsonian Institution said it had removed a reference to the 2019 and 2021 impeachments of President Donald Trump from a panel in an exhibition about the American presidency. Trump has pressed institutions and agencies under federal oversight, often through the pressure of funding, to focus on the country's achievements and progress and away from things he terms 'divisive.' A Smithsonian spokesperson said the removal of the reference, which had been installed as part of a temporary addition in 2021, came after a review of 'legacy content recently' and the exhibit eventually 'will include all impeachments.' There was no time frame given for when; exhibition renovations can be time- and money-consuming endeavors. In a statement that did not directly address the impeachment references, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said: 'We are fully supportive of updating displays to highlight American greatness.' But is history intended to highlight or to document — to report what happened, or to serve a desired narrative? The answer, as with most things about the past, can be intensely complex. It's part of a larger effort around American stories The Smithsonian's move comes in the wake of Trump administration actions like removing the name of a gay rights activist from a Navy ship, pushing for Republican supporters in Congress to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and getting rid of the leadership at the Kennedy Center. 'Based on what we have been seeing, this is part of a broader effort by the president to influence and shape how history is depicted at museums, national parks, and schools,' said Julian E. Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. 'Not only is he pushing a specific narrative of the United States but, in this case, trying to influence how Americans learn about his own role in history.' It's not a new struggle, in the world generally and the political world particularly. There is power in being able to shape how things are remembered, if they are remembered at all — who was there, who took part, who was responsible, what happened to lead up to that point in history. And the human beings who run things have often extended their authority to the stories told about them. In China, for example, references to the June 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square are forbidden and meticulously regulated by the ruling Communist Party government. In Soviet-era Russia, officials who ran afoul of leaders like Josef Stalin disappeared not only from the government itself but from photographs and history books where they once appeared. Jason Stanley, an expert on authoritarianism, said controlling what and how people learn of their past has long been used as a vital tool to maintain power. Stanley has made his views about the Trump administration clear; he recently left Yale University to join the University of Toronto, citing concerns over the U.S. political situation. 'If they don't control the historical narrative,' he said, 'then they can't create the kind of fake history that props up their politics.' It shows how the presentation of history matters In the United States, presidents and their families have always used their power to shape history and calibrate their own images. Jackie Kennedy insisted on cuts in William Manchester's book on her husband's 1963 assassination, 'The Death of a President.' Ronald Reagan and his wife got a cable TV channel to release a carefully calibrated documentary about him. Those around Franklin D. Roosevelt, including journalists of the era, took pains to mask the impact that paralysis had on his body and his mobility. Trump, though, has taken it to a more intense level — a sitting president encouraging an atmosphere where institutions can feel compelled to choose between him and the truth — whether he calls for it directly or not. 'We are constantly trying to position ourselves in history as citizens, as citizens of the country, citizens of the world,' said Robin Wagner-Pacifici, professor emerita of sociology at the New School for Social Research. 'So part of these exhibits and monuments are also about situating us in time. And without it, it's very hard for us to situate ourselves in history because it seems like we just kind of burst forth from the Earth.' Timothy Naftali, director of the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum from 2007 to 2011, presided over its overhaul to offer a more objective presentation of Watergate — one not beholden to the president's loyalists. In an interview Friday, he said he was 'concerned and disappointed' about the Smithsonian decision. Naftali, now a senior researcher at Columbia University, said museum directors 'should have red lines' and that he considered removing the Trump panel to be one of them. While it might seem inconsequential for someone in power to care about a museum's offerings, Wagner-Pacifici says Trump's outlook on history and his role in it — earlier this year, he said the Smithsonian had 'come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology' — shows how important those matters are to people in authority. 'You might say about that person, whoever that person is, their power is so immense and their legitimacy is so stable and so sort of monumental that why would they bother with things like this ... why would they bother to waste their energy and effort on that?' Wagner-Pacifici said. Her conclusion: 'The legitimacy of those in power has to be reconstituted constantly. They can never rest on their laurels.' ___
