PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island was among three states in the nation where new housing construction was the slowest last year, newly released data from the US Census Bureau shows.
Among all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the Ocean State, with a 0.2 percent increase in housing units year over year, ranked 49th, behind only Illinois, also with 0.2 percent, and Hawaii at 0.1 percent, according to the data.
The numbers are a far cry from the state with the fastest growth, Idaho, which had an increase of 2.2 percent. Utah followed at 2 percent, and North Carolina at 1.9 percent.
Elsewhere in New England, Massachusetts, which ranked 43rd, had an 0.4 percent year-over-year increase in housing units; Connecticut ranked 41st, with 0.5 percent; New Hampshire 30th, with 0.6 percent; Vermont 27th, with 0.7 percent; and Maine 22nd, with 0.8 percent.
For Rhode Island, the bureau estimated there was an increase of only 922 housing units in 2024, bringing the total number of units to 488,030.
In its annual report last month, the state Department of Housing said there were 485,533 total housing units in Rhode Island last year.
In an email to the Globe, Nick Freeman, the department’s interim chief of staff, wrote the agency is currently reviewing the Census data.
Last month, Governor Dan McKee laid out a new goal to add 15,000 new homes by 2030 — nearly double the number of units the state permitted between 2019 and 2023. Advocates and researchers have said, however, an additional 24,000 units are needed to close the state’s persistent affordability gap.
Freeman wrote the Department of Housing is optimistic the state will “make meaningful progress as new housing units come online in the coming years.’’
“Rhode Island has seen a significant increase in permitting activity in recent years – reaching pre-Great Recession levels for [the] first time in 2023 and maintaining that progress in 2024,’’ Freeman wrote. “This is a direct result of the state’s recent financial investments and regulatory reforms.’’
In the past four years, the General Assembly has passed nearly 50 new housing laws, aiming to lower barriers for development.
In a statement, Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi said there are a dozen more measures moving through the legislative process now.
But prior to recently signed laws, the last “substantive land use legislation’’ the state saw was decades ago in the 1990s, Shekarchi said.
Since then, many communities have become more restrictive about housing they will permit, he said. Addressing the housing crisis will take years, Shekarchi said.
“The new Census data is sobering, but not surprising,’’ he said. “Rhode Island was dead last in the country for new housing starts for multiple years consecutively, and this data is reflective of that.’’
The state is making progress though, he said, pointing to the 70 percent increase in building permits issued in 2023.
“The data is stark, but shows why doing nothing is not an option,’’ Shekarchi said.
Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.
