[OC] Post-Pandemic Population Growth Trends, by US Metro Area (2022->2024)

[u/TA-MajestyPalm]

Graphic by me, created in Excel. All data from US Census here: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-total-metro-and-micro-statistical-areas.html

I've created similar graphics in the past, but usually from 2020-2024. This is not the best time frame as it combines the abnormal covid years with post pandemic movement.

This time frame (2022-2024) shows the most current and ongoing population trends of the last 2 years.

I also wanted to better categorize the cities into broad cultural regions vs the arbitrary geographic census regions.

[u/Rarewear_fan]

Interesting stats that are often divorced by what many Reddit users claim. Go on any board related to moving or where specifically Americans talk about their lives, and many are saying cities like Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland are popping off, tons of people moving there, great places to live now, etc.

Now they have definitely gotten better in the last 10 years so there is truth, but the midwest and Northeast are not really growing anymore. In the South east it has popped off so much that house prices and property tax rates have exploded since COVID. They are stabilizing now, but the main driver for people moving (economic opportunity) has really gone up in the south along with the wealth it brought compared to even the 2000s.

[u/Tripod1404 → u/Rarewear_fan]

Some of this is also related to data being presented as percentages. 1% growth in Chicago metro area with 10M people is not too far off compared 6% growth at Orlando metro with 2.6M people.

[u/fastinserter → u/Tripod1404]

Yeah Raleigh with 5.31% growth is only 79k.

Many cities in the north already had a lot of people. South has more room because people lived where it was comfortable and the south was certainly not comfortable for a long time before AC, so higher growth rates don't necessarily even mean they are gaining more people than the northern cities.

[u/lilelliot → u/fastinserter]

I would suspect the Raleigh stats include the entire metro area, which is much more meaningful, and it's not like Durham, Apex, Morrisville, Cary, Holly Springs, Fuquay, Knightdale, Garner, Zebulon, etc haven't also been going gangbusters the past decade.

[u/evergleam498 → u/lilelliot]

I've been driving through that area once a year for annual beach trip for about a decade now and every single time I'm like 'omg this wasn't here last time! how does this area keep growing?'

[u/Spara-Extreme → u/evergleam498]

Driving through RDU area the only thing you're going to be seeing off of any of the highways are trees, trees and more trees. Its been that way for decades.

The growth of strip malls and housing is off the highway.