The pandemic has intensified ongoing population trends of recent years and created some new ones. New data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that, in the first full year of the pandemic, there was an exodus from the nation’s largest metros and rapid growth in Sunbelt metro areas. Smaller communities gained population after years of slow growth and decline.
Between mid-2020 and mid-2021, the gap between deaths and births across the country increased dramatically. Almost three-quarters of U.S. counties experienced a natural decrease from deaths exceeding births, up from 55.5% in 2020 and 45.5% in 2019. The trend was fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as fewer births and an aging population.
