INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ Newly released Census Bureau estimates show Indiana continuing its slowest period of population growth in three decades.

The population figures released Thursday show that Indiana added about 20,000 people last year for a 0.31 percent population growth.

Indiana University demographer Matt Kinghorn tells The Indianapolis Star the last two years have been the state’s slowest period of population gains since the late 1980s.

He says a long-running trend of people moving from the Midwest to the South and Southwest is helping drive Indiana’s stagnant population growth.

The county-level estimates show Indiana’s five fastest-growing counties are the suburban counties that surround Indianapolis. But the Fort Wayne area and southern Indiana’s counties near Louisville, Kentucky, also are seeing significant growth.