Gloucester County is growing in population, slowly, and Mathews County is decreasing, according to 2024 estimates released Jan. 27.

The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, a department of the University of Virginia, prepares population estimates annually. These are official estimates used in funding formulas for per capital allocations, the center said.

The new figures show an estimated population in Gloucester as of July 1, 2024, of 39,019 people. This is a growth of 308 people from the 38,711 counted in the 2020 Census.

However, it is also a decline from the 39,161 estimated to be living in Gloucester in 2023.

Factors of change include net migration of 876 people: that is, more people moving into the county than moving out. This is placed against a net natural decrease, more deaths than births, of 568 people. The difference is the estimated growth of 308 people, or 0.8%.

In Mathews, a decline in population persists since the 2020 Census counted 8,533 people. The estimate for July 1, 2024 is 8,407 residents, or a decline of 126 people, 1.25 percent.

The factors were seen as net migration of 222 people against net natural decrease of 348.

Opposite to Gloucester’s experience, the estimate for 2024 was higher than the figure published in 2023 of 8,376 people in Mathews.

Statewide, population is estimated at 8,811,195 people, an increase of 1.9 percent from the 2020 Census figure of 8,644,727. The statewide growth rate is 1.9 percent.

Neighboring communities all show growth: King and Queen County, up 2.3 percent; Middlesex County, up 2.4 percent; York County, up 3.9 percent.

Population estimates for localities are “typically based on a variety of administrative record data, such as births, deaths, school enrollment, and residential housing construction” in order to detect population changes, the Cooper Center said.

Complete information can be found at the center’s website: www.demographics.coopercenter.org.