Goodbye New York City; Estimates show significant losses in the city and gains in the sun belt

Ko Im always thought she would live in New York forever. She knew every corner of Manhattan and worked hard to build a community of friends. Living in a small apartment, she found her attitude shifting early in the pandemic. After her brother accepted to work in Seattle in the summer of 2020, she decided to move there as well.

“It was good until it didn’t happen,” said Im, 36. “The pandemic has really changed the way I think about how I want to live or how I need to live.”

Eight of the ten largest cities in the United States lost their residents during the first year of the epidemic, with leadership in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Between July 2020 and July 2021, New York lost more than 305,000 people, while Chicago and Los Angeles contracted 45,000 residents and 40,000 people, respectively.

Although San Francisco is not among the 10 largest cities, nearly 55,000 residents have left that city, or 6.3% of its 2020 population, the highest of any US city.

Of the ten largest U.S. cities, only San Antonio and Phoenix gained new residents, but only added about 13,000 people each, or less than 1% of their population, according to 2021 classic population estimates.

Justin Jordan’s move to Phoenix a year ago was prompted by a job offer that paid him more money than the one in Moundsville, West Virginia, where he lived. He had to adapt to temperatures of 110°F (43.3°C) and impractical traffic.

“I love the weather, the weather, and all the things I can do,” said Jordan, 33, senior COO of the business services company.

Austin and Fort Worth in Texas; Jacksonville, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; And Columbus, Ohio also recorded modest gains in population.

In March, the Statistics Bureau released estimates for metro areas and counties Changes appear from mid-2020 to mid-2021. Estimates released Thursday offer a more accurate perspective. For example, March data showed Dallas metro It has the largest population increase of any metro area in the United States, adding more than 97,000 residents, but Thursday’s estimates show the city of Dallas has lost nearly 15,000 residents. The growth occurred in suburban Dallas such as Frisco, McKinney, and Plano.

The causes of population changes vary from city to city, driven by housing costs, jobs, births, and deaths. The pandemic and the ensuing lockdown in the spring of 2020 made living in a crowded city less attractive for some time, and those who could leave — workers who could do their jobs remotely, for example — sometimes did.

William Fry, a demographic expert at the Brookings Institution, said he believes the population decline in most major US cities from 2020 to 2021 is “short-lived and linked to an epidemic.”

When it comes to growth rates, contrary to raw numbers, the fastest growing cities with a population of at least 50,000 have been in the suburbs of booming Sunbelt metro areas. Among them are Georgetown and Leander outside Austin; Queen Creek and the towns of Buckeye, Casa Grande, and Maricopa, outside Phoenix; the city of New Braunfels, outside San Antonio; Fort Myers, Florida. Their growth rate ranged between 6.1% and 10.5%.

As Metro Austin has grown by leaps and bounds, so has Georgetown, which is located more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of the Texas capital, said Keith Hutchinson, the city’s director of communications. The city grew by 10.5%, the largest in the state last year, and now has a population of 75,000.

It’s not really a surprise,” Hutchinson said. “People move here in search of jobs.”

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 Cupertino in Silicon Valley.

Damaged by Hurricane Laura in 2020, Lake Charles, Louisiana, lost nearly 5% of its population, the second highest rate in the United States after San Francisco.

Although a Category 4 storm was the trigger there, the pandemic has created opportunities to move elsewhere. Andrew Mazur, 31, had been wanting for some time to leave Philadelphia for South Florida where he grew up, and the opportunity to work remotely at his job at a large professional services company arrived in November 2020. He joined the nearly 25,000 residents who left Philadelphia Between 2020 and 2021.

Although he now needs a car to get around, Mazur loves to golf every weekend and go to the beach. He recently moved out of his parents’ house, to get his own apartment in Fort Lauderdale. He officially took that step three weeks ago by obtaining a Florida driver’s license.

“I’m not going back. Philly, New York, Chicago — a lot of people from there are moving here,” Mazur said.

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