New York City has lost 5.3% of its population — about 468,000 people — since the start of the pandemic, and many of them are hunkering down in the South

It’s no secret that some of America’s largest cities are losing residents. And while New York’s losses slowed in 2022, the nation’s largest metropolitan area has seen substantial declines since the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the world’s work and leisure habits.

So where is everyone headed? To the American South, it turns out.

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New York is shrinking

According to Census Bureau data, between April 2020 and July 2022, New York’s estimated population slumped from 8.80 million to 8.34 million, a drop of roughly 468,000 residents — nearly 5.3% of the city’s total population. Much of this loss was recorded between 2020 and 2021.

San Francisco lost 7.5% of its residents between 2020 and 2022, accounting for a greater loss of total population than New York.

So where did all those residents land? Census data indicates many went south. Georgetown, Texas saw a huge spike in population: more than 14.4% in 2022 alone. In fact, four out of the top five cities with populations of 50,000 or more that saw the biggest population increases were in Texas.

Additionally, more than 126,000 New Yorkers have exchanged their drivers licenses for Florida identifications since the beginning of 2021, according to Fox Business, which cited data from the state’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

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What comes next?

The end of lockdowns and the return to office life has seems to have lured some people back to the Big Apple. New York County, which includes Manhattan, added more than 17,000 residents in the year ending July 2022.

Will New York resume its pre-pandemic growth trajectory? Big metros will always have the headaches of bad traffic, a high cost of living and overcrowding.

But it’s not as though you don’t have advantages, either. And when you include the city’s sports scene, attractions, culture and vast public transit network, it’s no wonder the “I Love New York” slogan has been a keeper since 1977.