Cities That Lost and Gained the Most People in the Pandemic

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Was there really a mass exodus of Americans from big cities during the covid pandemic? For many of the nation’s largest cities, the answer is yes: the pandemic has had an unprecedented affect on their populations.

Cities were mostly growing since 2000, although that growth waxed and waned with economic conditions. But when covid hit, many cities saw historic population losses, an analysis of census data by the Brookings Institution found.

San Francisco’s population fell 6.3%, New York City lost 3.5%, San Jose, Calif. lost 2.7%, and Chicago lost 1.65%.

Who bailed? In San Francisco, they were mostly young adults, particularly white people in their late 20s, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

They were also rich. The folks who fled New York represented some $21 billion in residents’ income, according to the New York Times, and about one-third of the people who left moved from Manhattan and had an average annual income of $214,300.

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Where did these folks go? Many New Yorkers headed upstate, according to Cornell University. Some San Franciscans went to cheaper states like Georgia, Florida, and Texas. Three suburban counties just north of San Francisco — Marin, Sonoma and Napa— saw a net increase of more than $7 billion in resident income. The Chronicle describes one couple who sold their San Francisco condo for $1.7 million and began building a 4,300-square-foot mansion on almost 2 acres in Monument, Colo.

They also may have gone to other cities: some cities did show positive growth during 2020-21, Brookings found. Several were cities that were growing rapidly before the pandemic, such as Charlotte, N.C., and Fort Worth, Texas.

Examining data going back two decades, Brookings analysts found that there was no individual year that comes close to showing the population declines that most cities experienced in 2020-21.

Of the 88 U.S. cities with populations exceeding 250,000, 77 showed either slower growth, greater declines, or a shift from growth to decline.

Based on the data from Brookings, here are the cities that lost and gained the most people during the pandemic.

Cities With the Biggest Pandemic Population Loss

1. New York City

2020-21 population loss: -305,465

New York was growing in 2010, but the growth steadily slowed, and 2016 began a steady net loss of population. The greatest loss before the pandemic was about 90,000 people in 2019-2020. The following year more than tripled the figure.

In boom times for cities (such as 2000-01 and right after the Great Recession), New York ranked first in overall population gains, whereas during the down years, it ranked among the those with greatest population losses.