Graphic by me, created in Excel. All data from US Census here: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-total-metro-and-micro-statistical-areas.html

I've created similar graphics in the past, but usually from 2020-2024. This is not the best time frame as it combines the abnormal covid years with post pandemic movement.

This time frame (2022-2024) shows the most current and ongoing population trends of the last 2 years.

I also wanted to better categorize the cities into broad cultural regions vs the arbitrary geographic census regions.

Posted by TA-MajestyPalm

33 comments

  1. Required comment:

    Graphic by me, created in Excel.

    All data from US Census here: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-total-metro-and-micro-statistical-areas.html

    I’ve created similar graphics in the past, but usually from 2020-2024. This is not the best time frame as it combines the abnormal covid years with post-pandemic movement.

    This time frame (2022-2024) shows the most current and ongoing population trends of the last 2 years.

    I also wanted to better categorize the cities into broad cultural regions vs the arbitrary geographic census regions.

  2. Are people primarily moving to metro areas? Because I live in the purple region and we’re getting swarmed with highly paid telecommuters from NoVa and Charlotte. They’re like “I get three times the lifestyle here if I’m willing to drive three hours once a week.” 

    It’s less than it was in covid but it’s still happening 

  3. Interesting stats that are often divorced by what many Reddit users claim. Go on any board related to moving or where specifically Americans talk about their lives, and many are saying cities like Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland are popping off, tons of people moving there, great places to live now, etc.

    Now they have definitely gotten better in the last 10 years so there is truth, but the midwest and Northeast are not really growing anymore. In the South east it has popped off so much that house prices and property tax rates have exploded since COVID. They are stabilizing now, but the main driver for people moving (economic opportunity) has really gone up in the south along with the wealth it brought compared to even the 2000s.

  4. Love the regional categorization approach!

    The Austin vs Miami contrast is striking – both “hot” markets but completely different trajectories. Austin’s plateau might reflect the tech correction and remote work normalization, while Miami’s continued growth suggests lifestyle migration is more durable than job-driven moves. The Southeast’s dominance really reinforces the “no state income tax” migration theory. Would be interesting to see this correlated with housing affordability metrics.

  5. It’s interesting how the city of Pittsburgh is growing despite the metro taking a little population loss. I think the trend of the 20th century might be starting to reverse based on climate change, COL, and younger people’s desires for more diverse, accessible, and urban communities. The suburban ponzi scheme is clearly up for many of our “middle” suburbs (no hate on Penn Hills but that’s a great example), whereas the city is starting to see growth, development, and revitalization in places like Allentown, Uptown, and Garfield.

  6. ORLANDO IS N.1 LETS GO!

    Wait, this is a good thing or a bad thing?

  7. This is a nice graph. I would be interested to see it using only like 18-24 year olds (or a similar age range) to get a sense of where younger people at the start of their journey are choosing to settle.

    I wonder if millenials/genX are all about their own individual “experiences”, so they move out West where its sunny/outdoorsy and they’re like completely liberated away from the control structures back home, and the old silent/boomers of the MidWest/NorthEast are moving where its warm/dying off. So on a total population basis a place like PGH would show stagnation/decline. But for a fresh young person, perhaps cost of living, everyday utility, and a less, shall we say, individualistic environment might be more enticing (so a place like PGH might be more enticing).

  8. Now that y’all voted in this guy, you can expect the northern half of the country to slowly get all of the population increases going forward (since we’re apparently fully committing to the world going up in flames).

  9. No wonder I-4 has gone from bad to abysmal since 2020. What used to take 1.5 hours from Tampa to Orland for the last 30 years is now: 1.5 hours to ???? at any time of day

  10. I know alot of these trends and have seen them before and every time I see them all I can think is “it seems bad to me that the places that are being most damaged by climate change are also the places the most people are moving to”

  11. Ugh. As someone who grew up near Orlando, this new wave of people is the absolute worst. They’re trying to escape the crappy conditions of their home town, but just end up dragging it all down here.

  12. The top few metro areas on this list are basically just metro areas… they’re so sprawling it’s hard to tell where the actual city stops and the suburbs begin.

  13. Climate change won’t allow this level of continued growth in Florida, the Southwest, and coastal Texas. Think home insurance in Florida and coastal Texas and water supply in the Southwest.

  16. I live in Orlando. It seems that everyone and their mother has moved here in the last few years and the local government is doing fuck all to actually accommodate the growth. 

  17. Orlandoan here. I believe it. They just painted over a rainbow that was part of the Pulse Memorial last night while we were sleeping. Fuck anyone that willingly moves here and supports the Florida government.

  19. Arg… Another chart that cuts off just before Boise.  750,050 pre pandemic to  846,000.

  20. Raleigh is blowing up and the COL is actually pretty crazy but we still get treated like any other small town in NC for remote work salaries. Rent is legitimately cheaper in Philly.

    Also, I had no idea Birmingham was in Appalachia. Even more surprised people want to move there – definitely the worst city I’ve ever been to.

  21. Nice work on the graphic! If you’re pulling a lot of data like this, I’ve had good luck using Webodofy for scraping Census data. Keeps things running smooth without too much hassle.

  22. It’d be interesting to see this same chart along
    with median cost of living and income and property tax rates per state. Might be causation hunting, but it’d still be interesting to see, imo.

  23. As a lifelong Pittsburgher, I just wonder why the hell anyone would want to move to Orlando. I’ve been to the majority of the cities on this list and it’s one of, if not the worst one I’ve been to.

  24. I saw an interesting theory that places like Texas are growing because they still have space to sprawl out. CA has better weather so it growth happened much early and its run out of space to sprawl. Texas is hot and AC wasn’t as common back in the day (or at all), so it didn’t get a boom tell after it became everywhere (in the US). At some point you run out of places to sprawl (run out of land or simply you are just so far from the city the commute isn’t really possible). Be interesting to see if this plays out for the southeast.

  25. Maybe I’m not looking closely enough but: where’s New Orleans?

  26. Interesting graphic, thanks for making it. Also a reminder that Reddit doesn’t equal real life.

    And on cue the comments section fills up with people saying “because of climate change these numbers will reverse VERY SOON, and the Sun Belt will start losing population while the Rust Belt booms.”

    I’ve been seeing this argument made for 7 or 8 years now (“VERY SOON”) and yet every year the numbers come out and the Sun Belt continues to grow while the Rust Belt continues to decline. It’s like the boy who cries wolf, “VERY SOON” never seems to actually happen.

  28. Wild to see the South exploding in population, meanwhile I’m trying to get out of this humid festering shithole. I guess it’s a different experience when you have a decent income.

  29. Very nice data! I love that people are overwhelming moving to places where climate change will make things waaayyy worse. That’ll really help the energy grids etc

  30. Good thing climate change won’t be affecting Florida and Texas.

  31. it’s absurd that Los Angeles is near the bottom. Our city leaders represent the interests of a small group of NIMBYs who simply do not want anything built here.

  32. I want to live in the middle of no where and work on my game project off the grid.

    Cities get fucked in collapses. The farther into the woods the better.

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