Blue State Blues: Americans Are Moving Out of These Cities in Droves
28th June 2024
Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 24/7 Wall St. identified the cities Americans are leaving in droves. For each of the 387 U.S. metro areas, we reviewed population change due to net-migration — the difference between outbound moves and inbound moves — and identified the 30 cities with the largest relative population decline between April 1, 2020 and July 1, 2023.
Among the metro areas on this list, population decline attributable to net-migration ranges from 2% nearly 6%. In these places, outbound moves between 2020 and 2023 exceed the number of inbound moves by anywhere from about 1,200 people to more than 730,000 people. Many of the largest U.S. metro areas, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, rank on this list. Many of these cities are also among the most expensive and least affordable places in the country — particularly in regard to housing, currently the most commonly cited reason for moving in the United States.