Each year, the Census Bureau publishes population estimates for all municipalities in the U.S. with a population of 20,000 or more. Last week, it released last year’s estimates, reporting population changes for nearly 2,000 municipalities.
According to the Census Bureau, the US population grew by 1.8 million last year, mostly due to international immigration. The twelve U.S. cities with populations over one million grew by only 55,000 people last year, or about two-tenths of one percent (0.2%). They contributed less than 3% of the total growth in the U.S. last year. The diminutive contribution of urban cores to total U.S. population growth is nothing new and has remained at about 3% since 2020.
According to the same data, only about half of last year’s total population growth occurred in cities with populations over 20,000. However, that does not imply that half the growth occurred in rural areas, although rural areas have experienced a net migration inflow since the pandemic. The bulk of the growth has occurred in smaller cities and unincorporated areas either adjacent to or in close proximity to larger cities.
The census data showed that the bulk of growth occurred in cities with populations between 25,000 and 250,000.
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