Recent census data shows that America’s population is growing, and New York was the state with the largest numeric gains from 2023 to 2024 after a long-standing trend of residents leaving the Empire State.
Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Census Bureau via email for comment.
Why It Matters
After America’s population experienced “historically low growth during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the number of people in the U.S. “grew substantially,” by nearly 1 percent, since 2023, a report from the U.S. Census found.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently announced that the city’s population numbers have also been on the rise.
Census data from December 2024 shows that births outnumbered deaths in New York for 2024. But it remains among the three states that experienced the highest loss in population due to migration, joining California and Illinois.
What To Know
From 2020 to 2023, 80 percent of the Empire State’s towns and cities decreased in numbers. In 2023, New York was among only eight states with shrinking populations, alongside California, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Oregon, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
New York City saw some of the most significant declines, especially during the first years after the pandemic. Analysis by Cornell University found that the city’s population plunged by nearly 4 percent—more than 336,000 people—in the first year of the pandemic alone as people migrated to less dense counties and even neighboring states.
The U.S. census data shared in December found that from 2023 to 2024, New York lost 120,917 residents to migration, but the state’s population increased by 129,881.
Benjamin Cornwell, professor of sociology at Cornell University, told Newsweek that New York has been experiencing a population decline for the past decade.
“The most frequent destination for out-movers from the state is Florida, followed by New Jersey and Connecticut,” Cornwell said. “You’d think that this has to do with the popular stereotype of older folks wanting to move to places like Florida. But this is actually largely driven by younger, college-age adults.”
The reason college-age adults are moving out of New York could be because of housing-related concerns, Cornwell said, or because they got a new job in another state.
New York is still listed as the fourth-most populous state, at more than 19.8 million residents, roughly 400,000 less than 2020’s figure.
The census report showed that the number of people leaving the Northeast, including New York, had slowed in 2024 compared to 2023.
What People Are Saying
Adams said in a press release: “The numbers do not lie. Our city’s best days still lie ahead of us. Jobs are at their highest levels in city history, crime is down across the five boroughs, and people are coming back to the greatest city on the globe. New York City has emerged from the darkest days of the pandemic and continues to take leaps towards a brighter future. Believe the hype: New York City is back.”
Cornwell told Newsweek: “State out-migration in general is driven a lot by new jobs or job transfers, so it is natural that people who are more mobile, in the sense that they are less likely to have their own families, for example, would drive this trend. Housing concerns also play a large role, with people who lived in group quarters in the state more likely to contribute to this trend. So, we have people getting new jobs, and often who want their own home.”
What Happens Next
Cornwell said it’s unclear what’s in store for New York’s future population data, as the trends “became a bit blurred” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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