Vermont May Have a Population Problem

Uptick during the pandemic has petered out
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 15, 2025 6:01 AM CST
Vermont May Have a Population Problem
Church Street in Burlington, Vermont.   (Getty / kirkikis)

For a while there, it looked like the shift toward remote work during the pandemic might have fixed Vermont's problem of stagnant population numbers. But as the Wall Street Journal reports, the trend has petered out:

  • Pandemic bump: The state saw about 4,900 people move there in the 12 months ending in mid-2021, according to Census stats. The increases, though smaller, continued for the next two years.
  • Bump is over: More people are once again moving out of the state than moving in, new stats show. The state registered a net loss of about 500 such "domestic migrants" in the 12 months ending in mid-2024.

  • Big picture: It's "problematic," writes Art Woolf at vtdigger. "Over the past 10 years, Vermont has experienced more deaths than births each year. Since 2020, deaths have outnumbered births by 6,800, erasing any population gain from people moving here from other states." The state has a population of about 650,000, but it's an increasingly older one.
  • Housing: An economic group called the Vermont Futures Project estimates that Vermont needs to add 13,500 people to its workforce annually over the next decade to keep up with those retiring and to sustain growth, per a separate story at vtdigger. "We desperately need more working-age people," the group's Kevin Chu tells the Journal. Both stories note that one big hurdle in attracting them is a shortage of affordable houses. Prices are up about 50% in recent years, which the Journal notes is in line with spikes elsewhere in the US but is especially pronounced "for a small state that lacks a big-city job market."
(More Vermont stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X