r/dataisbeautiful • u/TA-MajestyPalm • 6d ago

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

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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.

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u/Worried-Ebb8051 6d ago

Love the regional categorization approach!

The Austin vs Miami contrast is striking - both "hot" markets but completely different trajectories. Austin's plateau might reflect the tech correction and remote work normalization, while Miami's continued growth suggests lifestyle migration is more durable than job-driven moves. The Southeast's dominance really reinforces the "no state income tax" migration theory. Would be interesting to see this correlated with housing affordability metrics.

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u/JD_Waterston 5d ago edited 5d ago

I agree that I’ve heard a lot of people discuss income taxes when choosing locations, whereas few discuss property or sales taxes.

To be clear, it still is generally true that the south has a lower tax burden - but the variation is much less pronounced. For instance going from Michigan to Florida likely increases your tax burden - https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/tax-burden-by-state-2022/ and the range from 10th to 40th is 9-12% - so most are pretty narrowly aligned, although outliers moving from New York to Alaska would be a profound tax savings.

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u/CiDevant 5d ago

I wish I could find a way to explain that to my Dad.  The way he talks you think he only moved to Florida for the Taxes.  Also his public school grandkids there are dumb as rocks compared to his grandkids who are either in private schools or other state public schools.  It's honestly really sad to see where my nephew / neices are developmentally compared to my kids and my other brothers kids.

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u/bobbybouchier 4d ago

Florida is ranked pretty high amongst US states in public school education?

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u/CiDevant 3d ago

According to World Report 41st and NEA 42nd isn't very high IMO.  But thanks for making me actually check my work.

Because I did see some "reports" that listed it much higher I looked at average college entrances exam scores and Forbes ranks FL 30th when looking at all test scores in 2024.

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u/bobbybouchier 3d ago

I suppose the wide variance between reports is attributable to how each report weights their metrics. US news & Reports ranks them 10th in K-12.