The annual Census Bureau numbers released Jan. 27 are just a snapshot of one moment, but they show blue states failing to reproduce themselves and their residents fleeing to red states, of which the strongest are growing not just because of blue-state refugees but also because they are successfully encouraging families to grow.

The numbers for the nation as a whole are troubling. Overall, the population grew by just 1.8 million, the lowest since the pandemic. While the cause of the slowdown is positive, President Donald Trump’s secure border and mass deportation regime, it does expose an underlying problem that has existed for years, which is a historically low birth rate.