[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/Waste_Molasses_936]

No wonder I-4 has gone from bad to abysmal since 2020. What used to take 1.5 hours from Tampa to Orland for the last 30 years is now: 1.5 hours to ???? at any time of day

[u/FloridaGatorMan → u/Waste_Molasses_936]

I moved to Colorado from Florida 10 years ago and was really frustrated how often I had to sit in traffic to get anywhere. Then I visited family in Orlando and felt much better about the traffic here, haha. It's still terrible here but I drove to MCO at 7 am on a Sunday and was sitting in traffic. Exact same thing that happened when I was driving to LAX Sunday morning years ago. It really is rough there.

[u/Waste_Molasses_936 → u/FloridaGatorMan]

The worst part is when things used to suck it was predictably sucky most of the time, so baring something unusually bad - you could plan for the suck. Now the suck is unpredictable and there's no way to deal with it. 

[u/Calvin--Hobbes → u/FloridaGatorMan]

The thing I always hated about Denver traffic is how unpredictable it could be. It could be 2am and for some reason traffic would be at a complete dead stop on the interstate randomly.

[u/FloridaGatorMan → u/Calvin--Hobbes]

Haha yup. I had to get out the door at 4 am one morning and still had a 25 min slowdown

[u/ObvMann → u/FloridaGatorMan]

Of only the car wasn’t your only option