NYC's Population Declining for the First Time in Over a Decade

The nation’s largest city is losing population for the first time in more than a decade, new federal estimates show.

International migration into New York City’s five boroughs tapered off, as more residents left, shrinking the city’s population in 2017 and 2018, according to U.S. Census Bureau numbers released Thursday.

New York’s population dropped 0.47% to 8.4 million by July 2018, compared with the previous year. Census officials previously estimated that New York’s population grew by about 7,000 in 2017, but revised figures show it actually dipped by about 38,000, a 0.45% decline from the prior year.

Officials with New York City’s Department of City Planning said it appeared that the city’s robust population expansion, fueled by new young residents, in the past decade appears to have begun its inevitable slowdown. Overall, the number of residents in the five boroughs grew by 2.7% from 2010 to 2018.