Report: Immigrants fuel post-pandemic revival in US cities
Major cities around the country are experiencing a post-pandemic population revival, with immigrants driving much of the growth, according to a recent report.
The analysis by the Brookings Institution, gleaned from U.S. Census Bureau national, state, county and city data released earlier this year, shows pandemic-related population losses subsiding in places like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, while in some places – such as San Francisco and Washington, D.C. – turning into gains similar to those seen pre-pandemic.
From 2020 to 2021, the report said, the 56 metro areas with populations of 1 million or more saw their first loss as a group in 30 years, driven by a pandemicrelated shift to virtual work. But those areas grew by a collective 527,000 residents in 2022 and another 870,000 in 2023, the data showed.
“The new Census Bureau numbers make the case that major metro areas and cities are showing signs of coming back,” Brookings senior fellow William Frey wrote in the report.
The results, he said, indicate that while a full population recovery remains years away, improvement in some of the areas hit hardest by COVID-19 is fairly widespread.
Immigration most benefited cities
The 2010s saw cities and urban cores experience growth spurts in the wake of the Great Recession of 2007-2009 as economically strapped and jobless young adults moved to suburban and urban areas.
Growth slowed as the economy and the suburban housing market picked up, prompting migration to the inner and then the outer suburbs. That trend was hastened by the pandemic and remote work technologies, with San Francisco and New York as prime examples of emptying cities.
But the data shows those cities bouncing back and places like Cook County (Chicago), Denver County, Milwaukee County and Washington, D.C., turning their losses into gains.
The analysis found that 40 of 56 metro areas with populations of more than 1 million grew more from July 2022 to July 2023 than in the two previous years. That included seven of the nation’s 10 largest metros: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Boston, Miami and Washington.
Births outnumbered deaths nearly everywhere, the report said, but it was changing domestic migration patterns, especially a rise in international immigration, that made the difference.
Immigration from abroad rose considerably over the past two years after nearly historically low levels in 2020-2021, with urban areas the greatest beneficiaries. The 20 metro areas with the most immigrants from 2021-2023 represented three-fifths of total U.S. immigrant gains despite comprising just 36% of the overall U.S. population.
And 11 metro areas – including Seattle, Boston and Miami – would have lost population over that time had it not been for immigration.
“The rise in immigration from abroad was a unique and demographically welcome contributor,” the report read, noting that such growth will likely continue to drive urban economic vitality. “International migration appears to be the ‘magic bullet’ not previously foreseen.”
Gary McDonogh, professor and chair of the Growth and Structure of Cities program at Bryn Mawr College, said the Brookings analysis was important “because it focuses us on the 600,000 to 1 million legal immigrants who arrive each year who are highly vetted and bring skills, capital and often family ties that revitalize cities and suburbs.”
McDonogh, who studies Chinatowns, said such neighborhoods depend on immigrants to stay vital. They often absorb Latino immigrants as employees to stay afloat and also more easily absorb Chinese immigrants who arrive as refugees, he said.
“These new immigrants may settle in suburban areas or participate in the gentrification of older downtown Chinatowns,” McDonogh said. “Together, they revitalize Chinatowns as service hubs.”
Additionally, he said, they can attract domestic migrants by making big cities more cosmopolitan and global.
Births outnumbered deaths nearly everywhere, the report said, but it was changing domestic migration patterns, especially a rise in international immigration, that made the difference. Immigration from abroad rose considerably over the past two years after nearly historically low levels in 2020-2021, with urban areas the greatest beneficiaries.