The pandemic changed how people live in so many ways. Some of the U.S. cities that were the fastest-growing grew at much slower rates post-pandemic, if at all. Growth slowed in the country's biggest cities in terms of population, and some states experienced a population increase because of migration to the South and West regions of the country.
As of July 2021, six of the 15-fastest growing cities or towns with populations of at least 50,000 were among the top fastest-growing pre-pandemic locations. The list was mostly the same or similar, but some cities' growth slowed.
San Francisco wasn’t among the 15 cities seeing the fastest population decline in 2019, but it topped the list for 2021. The city saw a 6.3% drop in its population from the previous year.
Six of the 2021 cities on the declining list were in California, and some other major cities, including Washington, D.C., and Boston, were also on the list of the cities experiencing the most population declines.
A year into the pandemic, Phoenix, Arizona, which had the most significant population increase from 2018 to 2019, hit second place, swapping positions with San Antonio. There was a population gain of around 13,626 for Phoenix, which was around half of what was added in 2019.
New York City has the largest numeric decrease, with a population decline in 2021 of 305,465. That was almost six times the numeric decrease for 2019, which was 53,624.
Similar to New York City is Chicago. The population drop in 2019 was just 7,447, while the numeric decrease for 2021 was 45,175.
The cities with the largest numeric drops in their populations had a total loss of almost 609,800 a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to around 102,700 between 2018-2019.
The Brookings Institute described it as unprecedented losses among 88 cities in America, with populations of more than 250,000 residents.
Domestic migration played a primary role in the loss of city populations.
Sixty-two cities registered the lowest growth since 2010, and 14 cities out of 88 had their first population losses since at least 2010. These cities included Atlanta, Denver, Washington D.C., Houston, San Diego, Seattle, and Minneapolis.
A few cities grew faster in 2020-21 than in the year before. Four are in the interior of California—Riverside, Stockton, Fresno, and Bakersfield, and two are in Nevada—Reno and North Las Vegas. Gilbert, Arizona, and Raleigh, North Carolina, also had populations that grew faster from 2020 to 2021 than the previous year.
The cities that lost the most significant amounts of their populations are coastal or near coastal cities for the most part, but then there are also a few in the country’s center. Detroit, Milwaukee, and Buffalo have seen population declines, but Indianapolis and Omaha were added to this list.
Suburban metro areas grew more rapidly overall than the cities they’re near. Major metro areas experiencing even suburban population declines included Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Cleveland.
According to Brookings, there’s no single year that shows the population declines on par with what many cities experienced in 2020 and 2021. There are indicators that many of the people who fled cities during the pandemic may not return as well.
