The South Is the Only Region Where the Child Population Grew
The South was the only region of the United States where the child population grew over the past five years, according to new population estimates the U.S. Census Bureau released on June 25, 2026. In every other region, the number of children fell.
The Vintage 2025 estimates track the population by age, sex, race, and ethnicity from 2020 to July 1, 2025. They show the under-18 population rose 1.1% in the South while declining everywhere else: down 4.1% in the Northeast, 3.9% in the Midwest, and 5.7% in the West. An Associated Press analysis of the data, carried by KCCI, laid out the regional split.
An exurban, Southern growth story
The child numbers are part of a broader pattern. The Census Bureau titled its release around a single finding: populations in all age groups are growing in the South, driven by outlying counties in metro areas. The region did not just add children. It added people across the board, and it did so faster than any other part of the country, with the growth concentrated on the edges of its big metros rather than in the urban cores.
Texas sits at the center of that story. The two largest county increases in the under-18 population were on the outskirts of Dallas and Houston, the kind of fast-building exurban counties where new subdivisions fill with young families. The same state also held some of the steepest declines. Loving County, the least populated county in the nation, had the largest drop in the population under 18. You can see which counties are gaining people fastest on the fastest-growing counties list, and the migration behind the regional shift in why so many people moved to the Sun Belt.
The country keeps getting older
The flip side of a shrinking child population is an aging one. The national median age reached 39.4 years as of July 1, 2025, up from 39.2 a year earlier, and it has risen every year since 2020, the first year in this set of estimates. The trend is nearly everywhere at once. More than two-thirds of the country's 927 metropolitan and micropolitan areas grew older over the five years. Only 251 of them saw their median age fall.
A falling child count and a rising median age are the same story told two ways. Births have slowed, the large baby-boom cohort keeps moving up the age ladder, and the result is a country with proportionally fewer children almost everywhere outside the South. The places bucking it tend to be young for specific reasons, which is visible in the youngest cities ranking, from college towns to fast-growing family suburbs.
Where CensusEasy fits
These are the same Vintage 2025 population totals that CensusEasy already carries on its state, county, and metro pages, so the national headline lines up with what the data shows locally. The fastest-growing states on the site are almost entirely Southern and Sun Belt, with Florida, Texas, and South Carolina near the top of the fastest-growing states list, while much of the Northeast and Midwest is flat or shrinking. The regional child numbers are the leading edge of that same migration.
You can compare the population and age profile of any two states, counties, or metros with the compare tool, or look up how your own area has changed on its place page.
Sources
Reporting: the Associated Press analysis as published by KCCI (June 29, 2026). Primary data: the U.S. Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 population estimates, released June 25, 2026, including "Populations in All Age Groups Growing in the South, Driven by Outlying Counties in Metro Areas" and "Census Bureau Releases New 2025 U.S. Population Estimates by Age and Sex". Program page: the Census Bureau Population Estimates Program.
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Which U.S. region has a growing child population?
The South is the only region where the under-18 population grew from 2020 to 2025, rising 1.1%. It fell in the Northeast, Midwest, and West, according to the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates.
Why is the U.S. child population shrinking?
Births have slowed and the large baby-boom generation keeps aging, so the country has proportionally fewer children. The national median age rose to 39.4 in 2025 and has increased every year since 2020.
Where is the child population growing fastest?
In the South's outlying metro counties. The two largest county increases in the under-18 population were on the outskirts of Dallas and Houston, the fast-building exurban areas where young families are settling.
