🇺🇸 Axios PM: Growth sputters out

🧢 Plus: Happy Opening Day! | Thursday, March 26, 2026

View in browser   PRESENTED BY META   Axios PM By Mike Allen · Mar 26, 2026 🌭 Happy Opening Day! Today's newsletter, edited by Alex Fitzpatrick, is 697 words, a 2½-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.     1 big thing: Growth slows as immigration plummets   Data: Census Bureau. Map: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals Population growth is slowing in most counties nationwide amid a big drop in immigration, Alex Fitzpatrick reports from census data out today. The new data offers the best look yet at how tighter immigration enforcement is affecting America's demographic makeup. 📉 International migration fell in 9 out of 10 U.S. counties between 2024 and 2025 compared to the prior period, the Census Bureau says. Other counties stayed flat. 🗽 That drop is hitting populous areas especially hard. Census Bureau demographer George M. Hayward said in a statement: "The nation's largest counties ... are often international migration hubs, gaining large numbers of international migrants and losing people that move to other parts of the country via domestic migration." "With fewer gains from international migration, these types of counties saw their population growth diminish or even turn into loss." 🇺🇸 The big picture: The U.S. overall still grew by 0.5% between 2024-25. But that's down from 1% over the previous period. Nationwide natural change (births minus deaths) held steady. International migration plummeted from around 2.8 million people to 1.3 million — about a 55% drop. Caveat: International migration includes both foreigners and Americans coming home from abroad, including military service members. The other side: The fastest-growing metros overall in 2024-25 were Ocala, Fla. (+3.4%); Myrtle Beach, S.C. (+3.2%) and Spartanburg, S.C. (+2.8%). Go deeper.     2. 💉 COVID vaccine injuries could become official condition   Illustration: Tiffany Herring/Axios Trump administration health officials are considering a plan that would make COVID-19 vaccine injuries a formal diagnosis that can be coded in medical records, Axios' Maya Goldman reports. Better documentation could help lay the groundwork for lawsuits against vaccine makers. 👩‍⚕️ CDC officials last week considered a proposal from a nonprofit representing people with COVID-19 vaccine injuries that would add a distinct code to the system doctors use to classify illnesses. The new code could allow providers "to identify, track and study patients who experience adverse effects specifically related to COVID vaccines," Mary Stanfill, a CDC health information specialist, said during a public meeting last week. Such codes are also used for insurance payouts, as well as research and statistical analysis. Keep reading.     A MESSAGE FROM META This muscle car business started with a single Facebook post     Muscle Car Jr. connects 230,000+ car lovers across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. That community helped its owner, Peter, turn a passion for restoring muscle cars into a thriving business. Why it's important: Meta apps help over 35 million U.S. businesses, like Muscle Car Jr., grow. Learn more.     3. ⚡️ Catch me up   First responders inspect the remains of a residential building hit in an overnight strike in Tabriz, Iran, on Tuesday. Photo: Matin Hashemi/AP 🇮🇷 President Trump called on the Iranian regime today "to get serious soon" in negotiations "before it is too late." More from Barak Ravid. 🏛️ Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) tells Axios that she will "most likely" vote for House Democrats' resolution to constrain Trump from waging war with Iran the next time it comes up for a vote. Go deeper. 🏃‍♀️ Olympic organizers are banning transgender women from competing in the female category, while also instituting DNA-based sex testing for all female athletes. Go deeper. ☕️ Protein coffee and other drinks are emerging as a key part of Starbucks' turnaround, with demand peaking on Friday mornings, Axios' Kelly Tyko reports. Go deeper.     4. 📸 Pics to go: America's pastime returns   Bunting hangs at Citi Field today. Photo: Dustin Satloff/MLB Photos via Getty Images MLB's Opening Day began this afternoon, with the Pittsburgh Pirates visiting the New York Mets in Queens. 🪝 Hotshot Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes got the hook in the first after the Amazins' pulled ahead 5-2 on 37 pitches. That's after the Yankees shut out the San Francisco Giants last night 7-zip in Netflix's "Opening Night" showdown. (Gift link: TV review by The Athletic's Andrew Marchand.) Ceremonies before last night's Yankees-Giants matchup in San Francisco. Photo: Lachlan Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images ⚾️ Tim Barnicle, academic and writer, waxes poetic about America's pastime on Substack: "Baseball remains our game, but it is much more than that." "It is a clarion call for hope, for wonder, and for possibility. A warren to protect from the winter wind. A daily American Aeneid, unfolding not verse by verse but pitch by pitch." Keep reading. The San Francisco Giants' Luis Arraez and Jung Hoo Lee take the field at Oracle Park last night. Photo: Lachlan Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images 🌭 "It is the sizzle of the grill and a melting bead of ice cream running down a child's face in the hot summer sun. It is the tang of lemonade on your lips and the pop of a bubble that got too big." "It is the feeling of a sunburn when you sit down to dinner and the chirping of crickets on a summer night you hope never ends. It is the call of your father's voice, resonant once more, calling you in from the porch as you reply, "One more at bat!" Today's schedule.     A MESSAGE FROM META Meta apps help over 35 million American businesses grow     Muscle Car Jr. is one of them. From a single post, it's grown into a community of over 230,000 car lovers on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — and a thriving business. The impact: "Restoring cars started as a hobby," says Peter, Muscle Car Jr.'s owner. "Now it's a full-time job." See Peter's story.   📬 Thanks for reading! Please invite your friends to join PM. 👆 Like this comms style and format? It's called Smart Brevity®. Bring it to your org — via hands-on training or internal comms software — to harness its power and impact.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Advertise with us. Axios, PO Box 101060, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. To stop receiving this newsletter, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences.   Was this email forwarded to you? 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