Detroit and Other Cities Reverse Population Losses, Census Bureau Says

DETROIT (NEWSnet/AP) — America’s cities are rebounding slightly from years of population declines — especially Detroit, which grew in numbers for the first time in decades, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday.
Detroit, which is Michigan’s largest city, had seen a dropping trend in residents since the 1950s.
But the estimates released Thursday show the population of Michigan’s largest city rose by just 1,852 people from 631,366 in 2022 to 633,218 last year. This is a milestone for Detroit, which had 1.8 million residents in the 1950s only to see its population dwindle and then plummet from one decade to the next.
“It's a great day. It's a day we've been waiting for for 10 years,” Mayor Mike Duggan said. “The city of Detroit has joined the communities in America that are growing in population according to the Census Bureau. For our national brand, it was critically important for the Census Bureau to certify us as growing.”
Modest reversals of population declines also were seen last year in other large cities in the nation's Northeast and Midwest, while the census estimates showed 13 of the 15 fastest-growing cities in the U.S. were in the South — eight in Texas alone.
Here are some other examples:
- San Antonio, Texas, had the biggest growth spurt in pure numbers last year, adding about 22,000 residents.
- New York City, which lost almost 550,000 residents this decade so far, saw a drop of only 77,000 residents last year, about three-fifths the numbers from the previous year. New York remains the nation’s largest in terms of population with nearly 8.3 million people.
- Los Angeles lost only 1,800 people last year, following a decline in the 2020s of almost 78,000 residents. Chicago, which has lost almost 82,000 people this decade, only had a population drop of 8,200 residents last year.
- San Francisco, which has lost a greater share of residents this decade than any other big city — almost 7.5% — actually grew by more than 1,200 residents last year.
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