The pandemic hasn’t permanently deterred people, especially immigrants, from looking for their property among the gritty streets and neon lights of Manhattan.

The county, which includes Manhattan, added more than 17,000 residents in the year to July last year, after losing about 111,000 in the previous 12 months, according to population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. I was. The previous decline was one of the worst urban population declines due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

New York County is one of several large U.S. metropolitan counties to see an increase in occupancy or a slower rate of decline from July 2021 to July 2022 compared to the previous year.

The reversal of population decline was particularly pronounced in King County, Washington, home to Seattle. The same is true in large Sun Belt counties such as Dallas County, Texas. His two counties in South Florida, Miami-Dade and Broward. All places had something in common. That’s what international immigration has brought.

Census Bureau employee Christine Hartley said, “The county’s immigration and growth patterns this year are approaching pre-pandemic levels.

Demographic changes are driven both by the movement of people within the United States and by international trends when people arrive from abroad. It also depends on whether births outnumber deaths or vice versa.

Maricopa County, Arizona, home of Phoenix, added nearly 57,000 new residents last year, recording the largest increase of any U.S. county. Internal migration was the main reason. Houston’s hometown of Harris County, Texas followed suit, with more than 45,000 new residents and international arrivals, and natural growth driving its growth. 20,000 residents have left. Collin County, Texas, a north suburb of Dallas, ranked him third in population growth with more than 44,000 new residents, mostly from other counties in the United States.

Los Angeles County, the most populous in the United States with 9.7 million people, lost its most residents last year, over 90,000, as the Angelenos moved elsewhere. One bright spot: Internal migration losses are down 20% from the previous year. Cook County, Illinois, was the next most populous county, home to Chicago and her second most populous county in the nation. That change was also caused by people leaving.

Several counties in the San Francisco and San Jose areas that experienced dramatic population declines between July 2020 and July 2021 saw significantly smaller declines in 2022, largely due to tech workers working remotely. .

Miami-Dade County, Florida, was the county with the highest influx of international immigrants last year. Harris County; and Los Angeles County.

Harris, Los Angeles, and Dallas counties experienced the greatest natural increases. Her three counties in Florida — Pinellas, Sarasota, and Volusia — led the U.S. in natural attrition caused by deaths outnumbering births. Florida’s median age is her 42.7, making him one of the oldest in the nation.

Manhattan’s New York County growth was driven by international migration and, to a lesser extent, by domestic migration and births outstripping deaths.

All population estimates rely on birth, death and migration data.

Despite the recent increase, New York County still had about 100,000 fewer people as of July last year, compared to April 2020, when COVID-19 spread rapidly across the country, making the metropolitan area the epicenter of the virus. It had a population deficit of 98,000 inhabitants. Tens of thousands of residents flee. Surrounding counties continued to experience population declines last year. Three counties, including the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, recorded the largest population declines in the United States, losing between 40,000 and 50,000 residents.

Several counties in New Jersey near New York also had spills last year. In Hudson County, a variant of COVID-19 Omicron closed his kindergarten around Christmas 2021, prompting David Polonski and his family to temporarily move to South Florida near his parents. rice field. The move was made permanent in 2022 as the family got used to being close to relatives and allowed Polonski and his wife to do technical work remotely. sold and purchased a home in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Polonski says he misses a few things about the New York area, like being able to walk places instead of driving and getting a decent slice of pizza instead of mahi-mahi, the ubiquitous fish on Florida menus. I got

“I love mahi-mahi as much as the next person,” he said. “But there is a limit to how much mahi-mahi you can eat.”

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Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter. @MikeSchneiderAP