New York City’s Population Shrinks by 78,000, According to Census Data
The New York Times
City officials said that the new census estimates did not fully account for the growing number of migrants, which would have resulted in a minimal drop being reported.
New York City’s population declined again last year, according to new census estimates. But city officials said that those figures did not fully account for the growing number of migrants, which would have resulted in a minimal drop being reported.
The city lost nearly 78,000 residents in 2023, shrinking its population to 8.26 million people, according to the estimates, which were released on Thursday. In 2022, it lost more than 126,000 residents.
From April 2020 to July 2023, the city lost almost 550,000 residents, or more than 6 percent of its population.
City officials said that they were likely to challenge the 2023 census estimates, which they said had significantly underestimated the number of migrants and other people living in group settings, such as shelters and dorms.
A spokesman for the Department of City Planning, Casey Berkovitz, said that 180,000 migrants had come to the city since the spring of 2022 and that 64,600 were still in the city’s care. He added that the planning department would be “working with the Census Bureau to adjust the estimate.”
The city’s demographic experts believe that the population has stabilized after the early-pandemic declines, and that there are signs that the city’s long-term growth will resume in coming years.
