Michigan population almost 10M again. These maps and charts explain how.

If Michigan could only find a way to clone Lathrup Village (population: 4,126), it'd finally have 10 million people again.

Census estimates released Wednesday show the state with 9,995,915 people, just short of the 10 million folks it last had in 2007 before population declines fueled by the Great Recession sparked a mini exodus.

But since the losses stopped just after 2010, Michigan's population growth has been slow but steady, adding just over 19,000 people in 2018. That's still likely not enough to avoid losing a congressional seat after the 2020 Census, dropping its delegation to 13. In 1980, the state had 19 members of Congress.

Numbers released Wednesday show the six states that gained the most residents (Texas, Florida, California, Arizona, North Carolina and Washington) added more people than currently live in Michigan -- and those gains, combined with slow to no growth elsewhere, will cause another shift of seats that will strip power from the Midwest and Northeast. 

Below is a map and two charts that explain Michigan's population changes.

Michigan, Midwest continue to struggle

Growth in the South and West has continued nearly unabated for a decade. But Michigan and much of the Midwest is still hurting, with Illinois actually losing people for the fifth year in a row, one of nine states to lose population from 2017 to 2018.

Michigan was in that boat not long ago. It was the only state to lose residents from 2000 to 2010. 

As of Wednesday, Michigan remains the 10th largest state, adding 19,500 people, the 22nd most in the country.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Births fall, deaths rise

In Michigan, births are declining and deaths are rising. In many parts of the state, deaths actually outnumber births but overall, there are more births than deaths. Michigan has seen births fall to the lowest level since the mid-1940s. In West Virginia, Maine and Vermont, there were more deaths than births in 2018.

Migration boosts growing states

There's another way to gain population: Migration. The states growing the fastest rely heavily on migration, both attracting people from other states and other countries. For those states that grew by at least 5 percent since 2010, over 60 percent of their gains are attributed to migration.

In Michigan, less than a quarter of the annual gains come from migration and the state is still losing more people to other states than are coming to Michigan. In the 2000s, those losses hovered around 100,000 people a year; an estimated 16,700 more people left the state than came in 2018.

Big states get bigger

California, Texas and Florida continued to gain population along with much of the South and West.