The number of new immigrants settling in metropolitan areas in the United States has declined steeply, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of recently released U.S. Census Bureau data, a shift that comes as the Trump administration restricts arrivals from other nations.
New York, Los Angeles and Chicago were among the large metro areas that saw a significant percentage decline compared with the previous year in net immigration — defined as the percentage gain or loss in immigrant arrivals. That factors in immigrants who arrived from other nations and those who left.
All three areas saw net immigration declines of 62 percent or higher. The Washington region saw a 44 percent drop, according to the analysis from William Frey, a demographer at Brookings. Frey examined recently released census data for July 2024 to June 2025.
The nation’s three most populous metro regions all saw their total population growth — from international immigration as well as domestic migration, births and deaths — decline after they had begun to gain residents following declines during the pandemic. For the New York area, Frey found a population growth of 32,000 from July 2024 through the end of June 2025, a dip from 291,000 the previous year, which he said came in large part from a drop in how many immigrants live in the region. He found a similar trend in Los Angeles, an area that had experienced growth the previous year but has since seen a contraction.
While the census data does not directly link changes in population to the Trump administration’s policies, the reduction in net international migration comes as the government has pushed forward with a mass deportation campaign, drastically lowered refugee admissions and stripped millions of their temporary statuses that had allowed them to remain in the country.
Legal immigration to the U.S. also fell from most countries during the first eight months of 2025, according to State Department data.
In all, 8 in 10 counties across the U.S. saw their population growth slow or decline during the July 2024 to June 2025 time period. Several communities along the U.S.-Mexico border, including Laredo, Texas; Yuma, Arizona; and El Centro, California, saw the largest percentage-point declines in population growth, according to the Census Bureau. The agency attributed those changes to a nationwide trend of “lower levels of net international migration.”
“The nation’s largest counties like those in the New York metro area are often international migration hubs, gaining large numbers of international migrants and losing people that move to other parts of the country via domestic migration,” Census Bureau demographer George M. Hayward said in a news release. “With fewer gains from international migration, these types of counties saw their population growth diminish or even turn into loss.”
The fastest-growing counties were in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, according to the Census Bureau.
Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute, said the latest census data reflects changes that began toward the end of the Biden administration to restrict immigration and have accelerated dramatically under President Donald Trump.
The data also offers a broader picture of how people are moving between urban, suburban and rural areas and the potential implications for urban workforce growth.
“It’s harder to grow a city economy if the workforce also isn’t growing strongly,” Gelatt said. “At this point in our country’s history, immigration is driving most of our workforce growth in cities across the country, so slower immigration could slow labor force growth and potentially overall economic growth.”
The post Far fewer immigrants are moving to big cities in U.S., data shows appeared first on Washington Post.
