WISCONSIN — A new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum showed a surge in immigrants helped to fuel Wisconsin's population growth over the past few years, while "natural population change" continues to fade in the Badger State

"That's just births and deaths," Mark Sommerhauser, communications director and policy researcher at the Wisconsin Policy Forum, said. "We'd been seeing more births than deaths each year in Wisconsin, so our state was primarily growing due to that natural change."

While that had been the primary population driver for years, that has changed. In 2022, research showed net migration helped grow the state's population significantly more than natural population changes. 

Sommerhauser's report indicated that "the state’s chances for population growth may depend more on its domestic and international migration levels." To that end, Sommerhauser cited U.S. census data, which showed  from July 2021 through June 2024, Wisconsin had a population influx through net migration of nearly 82,000 residents. However, under the Trump administration, those gains could fade in 2025.

"I think that's likely a reasonable expectation," Sommerhauser said. "We're not in the business of making projections or predictions here, but I think we're all familiar with what the current administration is talking about doing and is already doing in some cases."

Watch the full interview above.

Read the full report, here.