CITIES WERE A MISTAKE:

The latest Census Bureau release adds municipality (city) populations to the previously released national, state and county estimates for 2021. This article focuses on the core cities (historical urban municipalities) in the 56 major metropolitan areas (over 1,000,000 residents) as well as the suburbs (outside the core cities).

In this year of record low population growth, there were unprecedented major metropolitan area, core city and suburban losses. About half -- 27 -- of the major metropolitan areas lost population. A higher number of core cities -- 39 -- lost population (70%) of the core cities losing population. The suburbs lost population in 21 metropolitan areas (38%).

The population in the core cities declined by an aggregate 1.25%. The suburbs had a modest gain of 0.25%. But a larger gain occurred outside the major metropolitan areas, at 0.46% (Figure 2), indicating that the already evident dispersion was intensifying.

Overall, the major metropolitan areas lost 267,000 residents between 2020 and 2021, with the core cities losing a total of 617,000. The suburbs gained 350,000, nearly 1,000,000 more than the core cities. Outside the major metropolitan areas, there was a gain of 660,000 (Figure 3).

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