LA, Chicago, New York counties saw greatest population losses in US in 2022
LOS ANGELES - More Americans fled the counties that are home to the Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City metros than anywhere else in the U.S. last year, while counties in Arizona, Texas and Florida saw the greatest gains in population, according to new data.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported that California's Los Angeles County topped the list of counties in numeric decline in 2022, with more than 90,000 residents fleeing after losing some 180,000 people the year before.
Cook County in Illinois lost the second-highest number of residents after 68,000-plus packed up and moved out of the Chicago area last year, while Queens County, New York, came in third on the list with some 50,000 people uprooting.
Those folks weren't the only ones who ditched the Big Apple for greener pastures.
New York's Kings and Bronx counties' populations each dropped by more 40,000, placing them at fourth and fifth on the list of declining metro areas, respectively.
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Meanwhile, the top 10 counties that attracted the most residents last year were all in Arizona, Texas or Florida.
Maricopa County in Arizona won the crown for the greatest gain in population after welcoming an additional 56,000 new residents in 2022.
Texas counties claimed the next three spots on the list for highest numeric growth. Harris and Collin counties were No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, with each greeting around 45,000 more residents. Denton County saw more than 33,000 new neighbors move in.
Polk County in central Florida came in at No. 5 for growth with 32,000 new residents.
All the top 10 fastest-growing counties in the U.S. last year were in southern states, the census data shows, with half in Texas and the remaining in Florida, Georgia or North Carolina.
The census report on counties appears consistent with data released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) earlier this year, which found a growing number of Americans migrated from predominantly blue states with steep taxes like California and New York to red states with lower taxes like Florida and Texas in 2022.
The NAR noted in its report that many of the areas that saw the most people relocating featured economies where the labor market had bounded back since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, which featured many state and local governments across the United States shutting down or restricting business operations in an effort to quell the virus.