As international migration shapes as a key issue in the upcoming US presidential election, a new report shows that many American states would lose population without it.

Among the states that would have shrunk in 2023 without legal migration are the battleground states of Michigan and Ohio.

Both states have negative net birth rates, meaning more people die each year than are born; and they both have negative or very low domestic net immigration.

But tens of thousands of people from overseas settle in Michigan and Ohio each year.

Mississippi and New Mexico also rely on international migrant to maintain their populations, according to the report from the US Census Bureau.

Also shrinking without international immigration would be Alaska, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington and New Jersey.

In each of these states, birth rates have stayed positive but there has been a huge exodus of residents.

The most drastic example is Massachusetts, which grew by around 7000 people last year after accounting only for births and deaths, but at the same time lost almost 40,000 people to net domestic outmigration. The arrival of more than 50,000 legal international immigrants made up for the loss.

“US states that do not receive a large number of international migrants but depend on domestic immigration for population growth are New Hampshire and Maine, as they are seen as cheaper, more scenic and still close to East Coast population centres,” the report said.

“Several more states in the US registered negative net births but were able to grow due to migration in general, with Vermont being the only which could not have done without neither its domestic nor its international arrivals in order to increase population.”

The US is still growing faster than other industrialised nations, many of which have by now been hit much harder by demographic change.

America’s population continues to increase naturally, which is not the case for many European or developed Asian countries.

But immigration has played an increasing role in the US’ population growth, changing from a 31 per cent share of the increase in 2011 to 48 per cent in 2018 and to almost 70 per cent in 2023, according to the census report.

International immigration in the US has also become more diversified in terms of destination locations and is making up for the increasing numbers of Americans migrating internally – usually because of cost-of-living concerns.