New estimates released by the Census Bureau on Thursday revealed that eight of the 10 largest cities in the United States lost population during the first year of the pandemic, with New York, Los Angeles and Chicago leading the way.
Between July 2020 and July 2021, New York lost more than 305,000 people, while Chicago and Los Angeles shrank by 45,000 residents and 40,000 people, respectively.
Although San Francisco is not among the top 10 largest cities, nearly 55,000 residents left San Francisco, or 6.3% of its population in 2020, the highest percentage of any city in the country.
Among America’s 10 largest cities, only San Antonio and Phoenix gained new residents, but added only about 13,000 people each, or less than 1% of their population, according to 2021 population estimates.
Austin and Fort Worth in Texas; Jacksonville, Fla.; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Columbus, Ohio, also saw modest population increases.
In March, the Census Bureau released estimates for metro areas and counties showing changes from mid-2020 to mid-2021.
Estimates released Thursday offer a more granular perspective. For example, data from March showed the Dallas metro area had the largest population increase of any metro area in the nation, adding more than 97,000 residents, but Thursday’s estimates show the city of Dallas losing nearly 15,000 residents. The growth occurred in Dallas suburbs like Frisco, McKinney and Plano.
Reasons for population changes vary from city to city, driven by housing costs, jobs, births, and deaths. The pandemic and lockdown that followed in the spring of 2020 made living in a crowded city less appealing for a while, and those who could leave, for example workers who could do their jobs remotely, sometimes did. .
Brooking Institution demographer William Frey told the AP that he believes the population decline in most of America’s largest cities between 2020 and 2021 is “short-lived and related to the pandemic.”
When it comes to growth rates, as opposed to raw numbers, the fastest growing cities with populations of at least 50,000 residents were in the suburbs of the prosperous Sunbelt metropolitan areas. They included Georgetown and Leander outside of Austin; the town of Queen Creek and the cities of Buckeye, Casa Grande and Maricopa, outside of Phoenix; the city of New Braunfels, outside of San Antonio; and Fort Myers, Florida, had growth rates between 6.1% and 10.5%.
As the Austin metro area has grown by leaps and bounds, so has Georgetown, located more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of the Texas capital, said Keith Hutchinson, communications manager for the city. The city grew 10.5%, the largest in the country last year, and now has 75,000 inhabitants.
“It’s not really a surprise,” Hutchinson said. “People are moving here for work.”
Estimates also showed population declines of 3% to 3.5% in New Jersey cities outside of New York, such as Union City, Hoboken, and Bayonne. Similar declines occurred outside of San Francisco in Daly City, Redwood City and San Mateo, as well as in Cupertino in Silicon Valley.
Lake Charles, Louisiana, which was devastated by Hurricane Laura in 2020, lost nearly 5% of its residents, the second highest rate in the United States after San Francisco.
Although the Category 4 storm was the cause there, in other places, the pandemic created opportunities to move.
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