Fewer than half of the 3,143 counties in the United States added population over the last decade, the new census data shows. The share of Americans who live in nonmetropolitan rural areas dropped by 2.8 percentage points, the Bureau said Thursday.
As of April 2020, just more than 86 percent of Americans live in metropolitan areas, counties that include or are adjacent to major cities with populations of 50,000 or more, an all-time high.
About 4 in 5 metropolitan areas grew over the last decade, including all 10 of the nation’s largest cities.
For the first time in American history, those 10 largest cities — New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas and San Jose — held more than a million residents.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member