Immigration Intensifies Nevada’s Water Supply Crisis
August 7, 2025
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Published by Henry Barbaro
Nevada receives the least rainfall and is the driest state in America, yet it has one of the fastest growing populations. So it’s no surprise Nevada is facing critical water supply shortages. As more people move into Nevada’s urban centers, the demand for water has risen sharply. While conservation efforts have slowed the rate of water use per capita, the sheer magnitude of new residents, primarily international migrants, continues to place ominous demands on the state’s water supplies.
The Realities of Population Growth Across an Arid Landscape
Nevada’s population has grown dramatically over the past several decades. From 1980 to 2020, the state’s population nearly quadrupled, driven primarily by migration to southern Nevada (home to Las Vegas). In 2023, Nevada reached 3.2 million people, with 72% of that growth coming from international migration — the highest level in over a decade. Much of the rest comes from residents fleeing overcrowded, overpriced California. All this population growth has put extraordinary demands on Nevada’s falling groundwater levels and dwindling surface waters.
Southern Nevada is home to over 75% of Nevada’s total population and gets about 90% of its water from the Colorado River, which is being severely overused and is diminishing due to prolonged drought. In response to surface waters running low, communities pump more from underground aquifers. But this had led to many of Nevada’s groundwater basins being overdrawn (i.e., more water is pumped out than nature can replace). Water managers are left with only bad choices: divert water from the state’s farmlands, further over-pump aquifers, or drain rivers beyond their ability to sustain the wildlife that depend on them.
https://www.numbersusa.com/blog/immigration-intensifies-nevadas-water-supply-crisis/
