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NYC metro area's population nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, report shows
By
Giulia Heyward
Published Mar 13, 2025
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Kena Betancur/VIEWpress
By
Giulia Heyward
Published Mar 13, 2025
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The number of people living in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area is approaching pre-pandemic levels after a sharp pandemic-era decline, according to a report from the U.S. Census Bureau released on Thursday.
The New York City, Newark and Jersey City metro region also ranks at the top of the nation for population growth between 2023 and 2024, the report said.
The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered life for New Yorkers, as Gothamist reported earlier this week in a special analysis marking five years since the city recorded its first cases.
The pandemic spurred a mass exodus from New York City, with many residents leaving for other parts of New York state or moving to other states altogether. The Census Bureau identified the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area as one that experienced a significant population decline during the pandemic’s early years.
The new Census data shows the metro area’s population, which grew by 213,403 people from July 2023 to July 2024, is now nearly at pre-pandemic levels.
The area’s most recent population estimate, as of summer 2024, is just over 19.9 million — nearly the same as its population of just over 20 million in March 2020, just before the pandemic began.
Kings County, which encompasses Brooklyn, remains one of the 10 most populous counties in the country, with just over 2.6 million residents as of July. The most populous boroughs after Brooklyn are Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, according to the Census data.
Many of the more than 276,000 people who left the New York metropolitan area for other parts of the country — a trend known as “domestic migration” — did so at the height of the pandemic, census team lead demographer Kristie Wilder told Gothamist.
At the same time, quarantines and other pandemic-era restrictions brought international migration to a near halt. But since then, Wilder said the number of people leaving the city has decreased while the number of those moving to the city from abroad has grown.
Brooklyn and Queens recorded the highest number of new residents from outside the U.S., she said.
“With the pandemic, and the limitations on movement, it was expected that there would be a drop in international migration,” she said. “Since that time, the increase — I wouldn’t say that we expected the increase to be what it is but we did expect international migration to rebound and become what it was before the pandemic.”
If these trends in domestic and international migration continue, Wilder added, the metro area’s population could soon surpass pre-pandemic levels.
The population growth in New York and New Jersey mirrors national trends, with the U.S. Census Bureau reporting an increase of nearly 3.2 million people in metropolitan areas across the country between 2023 and 2024.
Growth in the nation’s urban areas outpaced growth in rural areas, with 239.9 million people now living in the country’s metropolitan regions — a substantial portion of the total U.S. population of more than 340 million.
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new york state
new york city
new jersey
brooklyn
Giulia Heyward
Giulia Heyward is a breaking news reporter on the Day-Of desk. She previously worked at NPR, as a breaking news reporter, and the New York Times, as a reporting fellow on the national desk. Her work has also appeared in CNN, The Atlantic and Politico. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or more securely on signal at 917-715-1458.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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