DENVER, CO - JULY 16: This is the view from the tenth-floor of the upscale apartment building Verve at 1490 Delgany Street in downtown Denver Wednesday night, July 16, 2014. The building is located directly between Union Station and the Pepsi Center. Nearly 40,000 apartments are set to come online soon in the metro area. Photo by Karl Gehring/The Denver Post

SALT LAKE CITY | New U.S. Census figures show Utah is the fastest-growing state in the country, leading a cluster of Western states with populations on the upswing despite sluggish national growth.

The figures released Tuesday show the state with the country’s highest birth rate grew just over 2 percent from July 2015 to July 2016, followed closely by Nevada, Idaho and Florida. Washington, Oregon and Colorado also took top percentage-growth spots.

Brookings Institution demographer William Frey says the U.S. population posted one of the lowest growth rates since the late 1930s. He says that’s largely because declines in the baby-boomer population haven’t been fully replaced by new births or immigration.

Several Western states are bucking that trend as people are attracted by recovering economies and affordable housing compared with states like California.