City population declines related to pandemic: Census Bureau
Population gains during COVID were largest in the Sunbelt
Population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that eight of the 10 largest cities in the U.S. lost population during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Between July 2020 and July 2021, New York lost more than 305,000 residents, or approximately 3.5% of its 2020 population.
In addition, Chicago and Los Angeles contracted by 45,000 and 40,000 people, respectively.
Notably, while March data showed metro Dallas, Texas, had the largest population gain of any metro area in the U.S. — adding more than 97,000 residents — Thursday's Census Bureau estimates show the city of Dallas lost almost 15,000 residents.
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Also on the West Coast, the northern California hub of San Francisco experienced the largest rate of decline. It lost about 6.3% of its 2020 population: nearly 55,000 residents.
The second-highest rate was in the city of Lake Charles, Louisiana, which was devastated by Hurricane Laura in 2020. It lost almost 5% of its residents.
Declines of 3-3.5% also occurred in cities outside New York and San Francisco.
Only Arizona's capital city of Phoenix and San Antonio, Texas, gained new residents between 2020 and 2021.
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The cities added only around 13,000 people each, or less than 1% of their populations, according to Census Bureau data.
Texas' cities of Austin and Fort Worth, Florida's Jacksonville, North Carolina's Charlotte and Ohio's Columbus also recorded modest population gains.
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The fastest-growing cities with populations of at least 50,000 residents were in Sunbelt suburbs, including in Arizona, Texas and Florida. They had growth rates of between 6.1% and 10.5%.
"While only 4% of all cities and towns had a population of 50,000 or more in 2021, collectively they contained 129.3 million people — nearly 39% of the U.S. population," Crystal Delbé, a statistician in the Population Division at the Census Bureau, said in a statement. "On the other hand, of the 19,494 incorporated places in the United States, more than 75% had fewer than 5,000 people."
However, the reasons for these changing estimates vary, and experts told the Associated Press they believe coronavirus-related population declines have been "short-lived."
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Changes are also driven by births, deaths, jobs and housing costs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.