Big cities could be making a growth comeback after a rocky decade. Their growth rates are rising and, for the second year in a row, they are growing faster than their surrounding suburbs.
The Census Bureau’s new release of population estimates for cities through July 2012 offer some surprises in light of recent trends. After plummeting to postwar lows during the Great Recession and its immediate aftermath, national migration rates have begun to increase again as the economy recovers. As a result, the traditional Snowbelt-to-Sunbelt shift has resumed as well. Many assumed that large cities, especially in the Snowbelt, might also release their hold on seemingly “stuck in place” residents who, due to the housing market stall, might have been prevented from moving to the suburbs or other regions of the country.
Instead, these new numbers raise the prospect that large cities may be in store for something of a demographic comeback. During the 2000-2010 decade, including the pre-recession housing boom years, many big cities grew slowly or even lost population as residents decamped for growing smaller cities and suburbs. From 2010 to 2012, however, cities with over one-half million population grew considerably more rapidly than they did, on average, over the previous ten years (Figure 1).
In fact, new data show that for 16 of the 20 largest U.S. cities, growth rates accelerated in 2011-12 compared to 2010-11. These included the Snowbelt cities of Chicago, Indianapolis and Columbus, as well as the coastal California cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego—places that grew much more slowly during the earlier suburban housing boom years. Between the 2010 Census and July 2012, New York led all cities by gaining 161,000 people, almost eclipsing its gain of 166,000 over the previous ten years. Since 2010, Los Angeles gained 65,000 people compared with 97,000 over the previous decade. And Chicago’s fortunes shifted from a loss of 200,000 from 2000 to 2010 to a gain of 19,000 from 2010 to 2012. The fastest-growing big cities continue to be located in the Sunbelt, led by Austin, Charlotte, Fort Worth, Dallas, San Antonio and Phoenix.
Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor
via A Big City Growth Revival? | Brookings Institution.
Related Posts
US – 10 Cities Losing the Most Jobs
10. St. George, Utah > Pct. decrease of employed: -5% > Decrease in people employed: -2,799 (34th largest) > June 2009 unemployment rate: 9.9% (145th highest) > June 2012 unemployment rate: 7.6% (148th lowest) 9. Carson City, Nev. > Pct. decrease of employed: -5% > Decrease in people employed: -1,308 (61st largest) > June 2009 … Continue reading »
New York City Suburb / The Highest Concentration of High-Income Households
The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn., metropolitan area, near New York City, had the highest percentage of households with high income in the nation at 17.9 percent, according to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. At the other end of the spectrum are two metro areas named Danville — in Virginia and Illinois — each … Continue reading »
US / Suburban poverty soars
Poverty is growing faster in the suburbs than anywhere else in the United States, soaring 64% over the past decade. That was more than twice the growth rate of the urban poor population, according to the Brookings Institution, which has released Confronting Suburban Poverty in America. There are now almost 16.4 million suburban residents living … Continue reading »
Job Market Monitor 
Discussion
No comments yet.