Population growth in the United States has slowed significantly with an increase of only 1.8 million, or 0.5%, between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025, according to the new Vintage 2025 population estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
This was the nation’s slowest population growth since the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the population grew by a historically low 0.2% in 2021. The slowdown also comes after a sizeable uptick of growth in 2024, when the country added 3.2 million people and grew by 1.0%, the fastest annual population growth rate since 2006.
“The slowdown in U.S. population growth is largely due to a historic decline in net international migration, which dropped from 2.7 million to 1.3 million in the period from July 2024 through June 2025,” said Christine Hartley, assistant division chief for Estimates and Projections at the Census Bureau. “With births and deaths remaining relatively stable compared to the prior year, the sharp decline in net international migration is the main reason for the slower growth rate we see today.”
Slower population growth was felt across the country. All four census regions and every state except Montana and West Virginia saw their growth slow, or their decline accelerate.
The U.S. population growth slowed sharply last year due to a steep drop in immigration.
An annual estimate from the Census Bureau Tuesday shows the nation's population grew by just 1.8 million people during the 12 months ending last June. That's about half the growth rate of the previous year.
A major factor behind that slowing growth was the foreign-born population, which grew by 1.3 million during the year, a 52% smaller increase than the previous 12 months. That drop results from fewer people entering the country through legal channels as well as the voluntary or forced departure of some living in the country illegally.
How I download and play YouTube videos with my smartphone using vlc and yt-dlp! I wrote this bash script as ~/bin/termux-url-opener and tell the YouTube app to share with termux. Prompts if I want to download an mp3 audio or video, saves the file, then opens it ad free in vlc.
#!/bin/bash
read -t 5 -p "Hit m for mp3 otherwise download video: " CHOICE
if [[ "$CHOICE" == "m" ]]; then
DOWNLOAD_DIR="/sdcard/Movies"
cd "$DOWNLOAD_DIR"
FILENAME=$(yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --print filename -o "%(title)s.mp3" "$1")
FILENAME=${FILENAME%.*}.mp3
echo "downloading mp3..." $FILENAME
yt-dlp "$1" -x --audio-format mp3 -o "$FILENAME"
am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW \ -
-d "file://$DOWNLOAD_DIR/$FILENAME" \
-t "audio/mp3" \
-n org.videolan.vlc/org.videolan.vlc.gui.video.VideoPlayerActivity
exit 1
fi
DOWNLOAD_DIR="/sdcard/Movies"
cd "$DOWNLOAD_DIR"
FORMAT="bestvideo[height<=240]+bestaudio[abr<=128]/best[height<=240]"
FILENAME=$(yt-dlp -f "$FORMAT" --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" "$1")
echo "Downloading: $FILENAME"
yt-dlp -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" "$1" -f "$FORMAT"
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "Got error, retrying in 10 secomds"
sleep 10
yt-dlp -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" "$1" -f "$FORMAT"
fi
am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW \
-d "file://$DOWNLOAD_DIR/$FILENAME" \
-t "video/*" \
-n org.videolan.vlc/org.videolan.vlc.gui.video.VideoPlayerActivity
You camp in the middle of January in an unheated truck cap. You ride your mountain bike to work in February on the icy bike trail. You’ve lost around 50 lbs of weight, you eat right and ride to work most days of the week. You don’t eat that processed food stuff.
Truth is I wish I had many more skills, that I was a better hunter, trapper, fisher and homesteader. Skills I could refine if I did more of it, and maybe I really don’t have a good excuse not to practice except that I live in city, though I do spend a lot of time in wilderness too.
Maybe if I wasn’t so damn lazy, unwilling to do more then pick up a book and instead get out there and do more, I could be a lot better off. Be involved with more activities and groups, associate myself with more of the right kind of people that share my interests. Join a sportsmen club, attend more lectures and activities on hunting and fishing. Tour more off-grid houses, meet people are forums and events.
But maybe I’m just kind of fat and lazy in another way. Too willing to do things the way I’ve always done them, too unwilling to go out in field and practice my book knowledge. It’s great I’ve read a dozen books on hunting and homesteading, but it’s all for naught if you don’t do any of those things.
Negative one seemed a bit too cold to ride in plus I’m not sure if the paths are cleared through Corning’s Preserve. More snow then I thought when I actually went outside. You know I don’t really mind not having a vehicle and not having to dig it out, as there really is quite a bit of snow when you go outside.That cold felt good as did the sweet smell of silage on the air. Preska’s cows are eating good in a cold. The bus was running a few minutes late, though I knew that from the real time bus info, but were making good time through the city.
Maybe tomorrow I will ride in tomorrow, 🚲 I do have another Pine Bush meeting to go to but I’m not sure if I can go. First time riding the bus in a while but with the cold ❄️ and snow I might be a more frequent rider. Traffic is surprisingly light on Delaware Ave and there aren’t as many abandoned cars in the road or five feet away from what was the curb. Negative one is cold and I probably should have worn gloves 🧤 on my way to the bus. Catching the earlier local bus and shuttle 🚀 over to the Enterprise assuming I can make the transfer at 8:25.
Yesterday I sort of worked from home 🏡, though I had my laptop in the office 🏢 which was a problem when I realized I would need the VPN and one of the databases which I only had the old version of it. 💾 Which is why I am heading in early. The roads in the city still have some grease on them but the buses are much better in the snow with traction control then back in the day. 🚏 I’m just amazed about the lack of abandoned cars on the roads and how well the city has the banks pushed back. 🅿️ But I guess this is not as bad of a snow storm as those years ago. Next weekends snow storm could be much worse with the existing snow banks and nowhere to push.
Last night I made up a big pot of chicken and rice soup with lots of carrots of course. And some carrot bread . It was delicious and there is more to enjoy the rest of the week when I get home . Going to walk laps in the Plaza after work, catch the bus home and have me some soup and head under the covers. Still need to find me a good book to read and really get into, the past few books have hardly peaked my interest. I’m glad to be out of the apartment, it really felt like I spent way too much time lately stuck inside. It was worth it to ride to Walmart just to get out on Sunday even if my hands were bitterly cold . I am actually looking forward to getting to the office just so I can be around people, walk and just be away from the small walls of my apartment. I really want to ride in tomorrow if at all possible.
Truth is by the time the snow is gone from the rail trail, I should be able to ride both ways to work. That will be nice not having to deal with the buses, though for the first few weeks of February it can be a bit of a race against the darkness, though I have lights on my bike. And the ride from office in Menands to the bus stop on days I catch the bus home due to too much snow on the rail trail won’t be in darkness. That’s always good.
Besides work yesterday, spent some time reading and studying up more on the truck buying process. 🛻🛻 I watched a video last night about the solid front axles on HD trucks, as I’ve always had Independent Front Suspension, which rides better but has more potential failure points getting beat on rough roads. Also, I’ve joined several groups about Ford SuperDuty trucks to learn more about the actual issues and repairs people are making. Also been looking a little at leveling kits and pricing them out, not because I plan to go out tomorrow and get 37s and put on a leveling kit to fit them but I want to know what’s out there.
And some carrot 
bread 
. It was delicious and there is more to enjoy the rest of the week when I get home 
. Going to walk 
laps in the Plaza after work, catch the bus 
home and have me some soup and head under the covers. 
Still need to find me a good book to read 
and really get into, the past few books have hardly peaked my interest. I’m glad to be out of the apartment, it really felt like I spent way too much time lately stuck inside. It was worth it to ride to Walmart just to get out on Sunday even if my hands 
were bitterly cold 
. I am actually looking forward to getting to the office just so I can be around people, walk 
and just be away from the small walls of my apartment. I really want to ride in tomorrow if at all possible.
I should be able to ride both ways to work. That will be nice not having to deal with the buses, though for the first few weeks of February it can be a bit of a race against the darkness, though I have lights on my bike. And the ride from office in Menands to the bus stop on days I catch the bus home due to too much snow on the rail trail won’t be in darkness. 
That’s always good.