Pandemic sees exodus from big cities in US

A lot of people have moved out of the United States' largest cities during the pandemic to live in suburbs in the southern part of the country, according to census data.

New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago have all experienced significant population losses during the first year of the pandemic, reported the US Census Bureau on Thursday.

The New York metropolitan area, which saw an exodus of 385,455 people from 2020 to 2021, tops the list of big cities with the biggest population decline. That happened despite the region gaining new residents from abroad and its number of births outpacing deaths during that same time period.

Phoenix received the most new residents. Its population grew from 1.4 million people in 2010 to 1.6 million in 2020, a rate of 11.2 percent.

Phoenix grew at the fastest rate among the US' biggest cities, vaulting ahead of Philadelphia to officially become the fifth-biggest city in the US.

Population in the Dallas metropolitan area increased by 54,319 and Tampa added 42,089 new residents.

"The patterns we've observed in domestic migration shifted in 2021," said Christine Hartley, assistant division chief for estimates and projections in the bureau's population division, in a statement.

The Los Angeles area, which lost 204,776 people, placed second on the list. It is closely followed by San Francisco, which was affected by a domestic migration loss of 128,870 people, and Chicago, which lost 106,897 residents.

Lifestyle change

In addition, other metropolitan areas such as San Jose, California, Boston, Miami and Washington, DC, also lost tens of thousands of residents primarily due to people relocating.

While people are leaving costly, densely populated metropolitan centers, an increasing number of them are also migrating into suburbs or smaller towns, which offer a lower cost of living and a lifestyle change.

"Even though over time we've seen a higher number of counties with natural decrease and net international migration continuing to decline in the past year, the contribution of domestic migration counteracted these trends so there were actually more counties growing than losing population," Hartley said.

Those changes result in population increases in 1,822 counties, or 58 percent of total US counties; 41.8 percent, or 1,313 counties, saw a decline in residents; eight counties, or 0.3 percent, saw no change in their populations.

Moreover, the latest census indicated that growth in micro areas is accelerating. This is different than in the past when metropolitan areas usually grow at a faster rate than their micropolitan counterparts. Micropolitan areas are defined as urban centers with a population of at least 10,000 people, but fewer than 50,000.