Population change for states and Puerto Rico from July 1, 2017, to July 1, 2018.

(U.S. Census Bureau)

At a Glance

More than 125,000 people left Puerto Rico between July 1, 2017, and July 1, 2018.The state of New York saw a steep decline in population, the largest in the nation. The fastest growing states were Nevada and Idaho.

New information released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau confirms a mass migration from Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria, a steep decline in New York's population and a growth in Idaho and Nevada.

According to the data, an estimated between July 1, 2017, and July 1, 2018, a 14 percent drop. The population now stands at 3.2 million people.

“Puerto Rico has seen a steady decline in population over the last decade,” Sandra Johnson, a demographer/statistician in the Population Division of the Census Bureau, said in a press release. “Hurricane Maria in September of 2017 further , both before and during the recovery period.”

The Category 4 hurricane caused an estimated $100 billion in damage and obliterated the island's power grid. The storm prompted tens of thousands to flee, particularly in light of a 12-year recession.

(MORE: Hurricane Maria Now Blamed for 1,427 Deaths in Puerto Rico)

The report also noted that the state of New York lost an estimated 48,510 of its 19.4 million residents during the same period, the largest decline in population in the country. The greatest loss came from upstate and the majority of the outbound residents relocated to other states.

Nine other states saw a decrease in population, including Illinois (45,116), West Virginia (11,216), Louisiana (10,840), Hawaii (3,712), Mississippi (3,133), Alaska (2,348), Connecticut (1,215) and Wyoming (1,197).

“Many states have seen fewer births and more deaths in recent years,” Johnson said. “If those states are not gaining from either domestic or international migration they will experience either low population growth or outright decline.”

The fastest growing states were Nevada and Idaho, the report noted. Both increased by 2.1 percent from July 1, 2017 to July 1, 2018. Those states were followed by Utah (1.9 percent), Arizona (1.7 percent), and Florida and Washington (1.5 percent each).