San Antonio's population is on an upward trend, largely thanks to a flurry of newcomers, the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates reveal. Between April 2020 and July 2024, nearly 205,000 people added their numbers to the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area, with a noteworthy 59% attributable to domestic migration.
Not just from within the U.S. borders, but people from across the globe are contributing to this demographic swell. State Demographer Lloyd Potter, a demography professor at The University of Texas at San Antonio, highlighted the significant role international migration played in Texas between '23 and '24, a trend previously unseen. Potter unveiled, "[A lot] of the population changes we saw in Texas between ’23 and ’24 was from international migration," a pattern brought to light only recently due to new data from the immigration naturalization service which captures refugees' movements, in a statement obtained by the San Antonio Report.
The influx from abroad adds a new hue to the state's demographic canvas. Texas saw an addition of an estimated 562,941 faces from international shores within a year, from July 2023 to July 2024. In Bexar County alone, growth of 1.4% was recorded during this term, 0.9% of which was from migration alone. Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Census Bureau, acknowledged the growing effect of international migration on urban populations nationwide, despite a gradual decline in births.
The slipstream of migration is, however, feeling the pressure of policy winds changing direction under the Trump administration. Staff and resources previously devoted to supporting migrant populations are drying up, said Potter in a San Antonio Report interview, and San Antonio recently experienced the layoff of 61 employees from its Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services office (RAICES). Efforts by ICE to track and deport individuals lacking legal status in the U.S. have begun in earnest, notably in San Antonio since the end of January. Furthermore, the city's Migrant Resource Center has declared a phasing out of operations due to a "sustained and significant decline in the number of migrants transiting," Potter told the San Antonio Report.
With the population pattern pivoting, future migration statistics may undergo a steep decline. The last word from Potter, who anticipates the numbers to "come down pretty dramatically from '24 to '25," points to the sobering reality of fewer immigrants' reflections in data, constrained by the tightening grasp of visa protocols and policy restrictions.
