Johnson County was again among the fastest-growing counties in Indiana last year, new population estimates show.
But while the county is seeing positive growth, signs of a slowdown are on the horizon for the state as a whole.
Johnson County grew 1.9% from 2024 to 2025 — adding 3,239 new residents, and putting the county’s estimated population at 174,262, according to new estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau and analyzed by the Indiana Business Research Center at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. The county tied with Hamilton County for fourth place in the state for growth, only behind Boone County with 2.6% growth, Hancock County with 2.4% and Clark County with 2.1%.
Since July 2020, Johnson County has grown by 7.4%, or by 12,025 residents. This is an average of 1.4%, or 2,405 residents, a year, data shows.
Indiana, as a whole, added 38,579 residents in 2025 to reach a total population of 6.97 million. The state’s population growth slowed compared to the previous year, yet Indiana’s gains in 2025 still rank as the state’s seventh-largest annual increase over the past 20 years, according to the Indiana Business Research Center.
“Since 2023, Indiana has had an average annual growth of more than 43,900 residents per year, which is the state’s largest increase over a three-year stretch since adding roughly 48,700 residents a year from 2006 to 2008,” said Matt Kinghorn, senior demographer at the Indiana Business Research Center, in a news release.
While the scale of growth is similar for these two periods, researchers say the drivers of change have shifted drastically. From 2006 to 2008, natural increase — or the difference between births and deaths — accounted for 70% of Indiana’s growth. Over the past three years, by contrast, migration is responsible for 81% of the state’s gains.
For the fourth consecutive year, net international migration was the largest source of Indiana’s growth, with a net inflow of 17,852 residents last year. Net international migration refers to any change of residence across U.S. borders, including those who are foreign-born; those who are migrating between the U.S. and Puerto Rico; U.S. citizens migrating to and from the United States; and movement of Armed Forces personnel between the U.S. and overseas, according to the Indiana Business Research Center.
While still the state’s leading source of growth, net international migration to Indiana declined by 53% from 2024 to 2025. This period includes the first months of President Donald Trump’s second term and the start of his administration’s immigration crackdown.
Meanwhile, net domestic migration to Indiana more than doubled last year, from a net inflow of 6,024 in 2024 to 12,197 in 2025. Indiana also had 8,561 more births than deaths in 2025, a 7% decrease compared to the previous year, according to the Indiana Business Research Center.
“This marks the first time in the last four years that Indiana’s natural increase has declined, which suggests that the state’s post-pandemic rebound in natural increase may have peaked in 2024,” Kinghorn said.
Indiana’s 0.56% growth rate in 2025 outpaced neighboring Kentucky’s 0.5%, Ohio’s 0.34%, Michigan’s 0.28% and Illinois’ 0.13%. Indiana also grew slightly faster than the U.S. as a whole, which grew at 0.52%. Indiana’s growth rate ranked 22nd nationally, researchers say.
County-wise, 66 of Indiana’s 92 counties grew in 2025 — including all of the counties in the “donut” surrounding Indianapolis. However, the population rebound seen in many rural areas in recent years is beginning to wane, researchers say.
From 2010 to 2020, Indiana’s 23 rural counties — or counties that are not designated as being part of either a metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget — declined by an average of 1,068 residents per year as a group. However, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Indiana’s rural counties combined to grow by more than 1,500 residents per year in 2023 and 2024, researchers say.
This trend showed signs of weakening in 2025, with growth in the state’s rural counties as a group falling to roughly 400 residents last year.
The story is similar for the state’s 25 mid-sized counties, known as micropolitan areas. After declining by an average of 347 residents per year during the 2010s, Indiana’s mid-sized counties as a group grew by an average of more than 4,000 residents per year in 2023 and 2024, then fell to 1,625 last year. Meanwhile, the 44 Indiana counties that are part of a metropolitan area combined to add 36,553 residents in 2025, which accounted for 95% of the state’s growth last year, according to the Indiana Business Research Center.
For Indiana’s rural and mid-sized counties, slower growth in 2025 was caused by sharp drops in net migration. The net inflow of residents to rural Indiana declined by 58% last year, while net migration to the state’s mid-sized counties was down 66%, researchers say.
“The difficulty for most of Indiana’s rural and mid-sized counties is that population growth or decline now rests solely on their ability to retain existing residents or attract new ones, as a natural decrease of the population has become the norm in many communities,” Kinghorn said.
Sixty-seven of Indiana’s 92 counties saw net in-migration in 2025, but only 34 counties had a natural increase in population. Johnson County is among both groups.
Johnson County had a net in-migration of 2,876 in 2025, the majority of which, 2,497, came from domestic migration. As for natural changes in population, the county had an increase of 384 from 2024 to 2025, Census data shows.
Since April 2020, the county has had a net in-migration of 11,179, most of which was domestic. There was a natural increase in population of 1,387.