Three of New York’s five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx – experienced some of the largest population declines in the country last fiscal year, with only Manhattan bucking the post-COVID trend, according to census data. from the US published yesterday.
Queens lost 50,112 residents in the 12 months ending July 1, 2022, the third-largest gross drop of any US county, behind only Los Angeles (90,704) and Chicago (68,314).
Just behind Queens was Kings County (Brooklyn), which lost 46,970 residents during the same period, and The Bronx, where the population fell by 41,143 people. NYC’s other county – Richmond (Staten Island) – saw its population drop by just 2,351 residents.
By contrast, pricey Manhattan, which lost nearly 100,000 residents in 2021, was the only NYC borough to reverse its decline, with a population increase of 17,472 residents in fiscal 2022.
The increase is largely due to national and foreign migration, he said. New York Post. Exactly 2,908 residents came to Manhattan from other parts of the US, along with a net increase of 10,947 residents from abroad and 3,292 more births than deaths.
When comparing the flood in Manhattan with the loss in the other four boroughs, the balance of NYC is negative. New York City’s overall population dropped by 123,104 residents during those 12 months, to 8,335,897 people as of July 1, 2022. That’s 468,297 fewer people than at its pre-pandemic peak.
Some particularities of the findings are:
-A total of 76,719 Queens residents left the county, while only 17,266 international immigrants arrived.
-In Brooklyn, 77,746 residents moved, replaced by only 13,948 foreigners.
-From The Bronx, 60,368 residents left, replaced by 11,085 international arrivals.
-In Staten Island some 4,115 residents left, while only 1,064 foreigners arrived.
A Census Bureau spokesman said Thursday that residents are counted regardless of their immigration status, meaning the count includes some undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers who have flooded into the city in recent months.
But Mayor Eric Adams’ office asserted that the increase in migration is largely not reflected in the latest count, and a City Council source noted that the significant influx of asylum seekers into the city did not begin until spring 2022, shortly before the close of the fiscal year on July 1.
“New York City was hit hard by the pandemic, but New Yorkers are resilient and our recovery is strong,” he told the New York Post a spokesperson for the mayor’s office. “We have recovered 99% of the jobs lost during the pandemic, Manhattan is growing, and demographic trends are returning to pre-pandemic norms. We are optimistic that 2023 will continue to bring good news for the future of New York City.”
Population experts said Manhattan’s reputation as a business and entertainment mecca for young and highly educated people may also partly explain the difference from other NYC boroughs.
“It’s the center of action in culture, nightlife, neighborhood amenities, museums and everything else, and people want to be close to that,” said John Mollenkopf, director of the Graduate Center for Urban Research at CUNY. “Manhattan is full of professionals who are able to work from home, at least for much of the week.”
Overall, according to Mollenkopf, the city needs to assimilate immigrants and do a better job of keeping older residents and retirees from moving elsewhere.
This month a study ranked New York as the 2nd most expensive state in the country to live in when it comes time to retire.
Recently, the state of NY lost a seat in the national Capitol and the allocation of federal funds due to the decline in the population, which had been declining before the pandemic and has accelerated since then.