In 1st full year of pandemic, biggest metros lost residents

By MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press

In the first full year of the pandemic, the New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago metro areas had the greatest population losses in the nation. U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday shows Sunbelt metros like Dallas, Phoenix and Houston had the biggest gains. The exodus from the biggest U.S. metros was led by New York, which lost almost 328,000 residents. It was driven by people leaving for elsewhere, even though the metro area gained new residents from abroad and births outpaced deaths. On the flip side, metro Dallas grew by more than 97,000 residents and metro Phoenix jumped by more than 78,000 people.