The Fastest-Declining City in Every US State

The U.S. has a large diversity of population demographics. Over the past 50 years, population has been defined by stagnation or decline in urban and rural areas, with growth in suburban and ex-urban areas, on the edge of metropolitan areas. These are the areas that balance a quieter lifestyle with good job opportunities, and it's drawn new families. Between the 2010 and 2020 census, just three states in the U.S. lost population, those being Illinois, Mississippi, and West Virginia. These states struggled with a decline in rural and urban areas, with less suburban growth Between 2020 and 2022, though, it was estimated nine states lost population, spreading to some new areas. This may be showing a shift in population growth, which we may see in the next census, but it brings up an interesting question of where the biggest declines are being seen. So today I wanted to go over every state's city that is losing population the fastest, going from the slowest all the way to the end, where we find a city that lost almost 50,000 residents. Before that though, buy my new 100,000 subscriber merchandise. We have 100k specific designs that are only available for one month, and also my personal favorite, the classic beaver shirt. There's stickers and hats as well, and I'm really excited about all of this, so if you appreciate the content and want to rep the channel, check out bvrgeo.shop in the description and buy something. Thank you! So a few quick technicalities, these statistics are really not that easy to find, and apparently nobody wanted to make an article specifically for exactly what I want to do for this video. I did find this statistic, but it's only for cities above 100,000 residents, so just keep that in mind. For states that don't have cities in that category, I took the city with the highest population that is currently losing population. Okay, got it? With that, let's get into the video. So I know I just explained my technicalities, but 50th place is Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where this state beat the system. The city gained 14.25% between 2017 and 2022, and now has a population of 202,000. There are 15 more states that don't have anything losing population, so I'll run through those a little quicker. Billings, Montana is in 49th place, the largest city in the state, gained 9.42%, and now has 119,000 residents. North Dakota is next with Fargo, which gained 8.33% to 133,000. Rhode Island is an unexpected one, as the state is losing population, but Providence is here, gaining 5.09% to 189,000. Idaho has Boise, which gained 4.4%, and it is up at 239,000. South Carolina squeaks out of the list with Columbia, which gained 4.32% in 45th place. New Jersey did the same with Elizabeth, which also gained 4.32%. The next 5 are New Hampshire with Manchester, Nebraska with Lincoln, Oklahoma with Tulsa, Arkansas somehow with Little Rock, and Vermont with Colchester. There are just 4 more cities in the green, being Everett, Washington, Sandy Springs, Georgia, Evansville, Indiana, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. If you managed to get onto that part of the list, good for you. It's getting bad pretty fast, with some rough places coming up later in this video. So let's get straight into the declining cities, with 34th place being North Carolina with Fayetteville, home of Jay Cole. The city lost 0.49% and now has 208,000 residents. A weird one is Kentucky with Lexington, the consolidated city county. I was just here and it seems like a pretty nice place with a vibrant downtown, but I guess this suburban growth isn't offsetting the urban migration, so it lost 0.5%. Pennsylvania has an expected city with Philadelphia. The city has been continuously declining in population, and it's now down to 1.56 million, losing 0.86%. Getting over a percent lost, we have St. Paul, Minnesota, which has declined as Minneapolis has increased. It lost 1.12% of its population. Moving to Maine, a lot of the northern areas are losing population, which includes Bangor, which lost 1.25% and now has just 31,600. Kansas City, Kansas is in 29th place, as some would say it got the bad side of this city. It lost 1.59%, and this trend is continuing. Hawaii's only entry, Honolulu, lost 1.98% in our time period, and Oregon had Portland, which lost the same amount. These cities seem like they would be growing, but these population trends may tell you something about changing opinions towards the areas. Connecticut has Hartford, which lost 2.22%, and rounds out our bottom 25. Or top 25, depends on the way you look at it. Those cities and states are not in the worst situation ever. You can look at a state like Indiana and say they don't have to fully worry about their population trends based off Evansville, but as you get higher on this list, it ends up being a little more worrisome for these states, starting with Alaska, specifically Anchorage. This state has struggled with population pretty badly lately, and this is seen specifically in Anchorage, which lost 2.45% of its population. Delaware is next with Newark, a city in the Wilmington metro that lost 2.7%. The only city that was losing population for Arizona was Scottsdale, which ends up being the odd Phoenix suburb out. It lost 2.77%, and now has 243,000 residents. Des Moines, Iowa is interesting, since Waukee, its suburb, is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Des Moines lost 3.06%, though. In the 21st place, we have Provo, Utah, which lost 4,000 residents, or 3.25%, which I thought was interesting related to the entire state's growth. New York, New York is right here. The city has been stagnant or declining for a while, and it lost 3.33% in this time period. Colorado's Centennial has been stagnant for a while now, and lost 4.01% over this time period. It's been within the same 10,000 residents for decades now, though this probably just has to do with the lack of room to grow within city limits, rather than a decline in the city. Same thing can't be said for West Virginia, though, with Charleston. This entire state has been losing population pretty rapidly, and Charleston is absolutely no exception, losing 4.15%, similar to basically every other metro in the state. Wyoming was difficult, but Green River is a bit more rural, and it lost 4.66%, with nobody really choosing to live in Green River, Wyoming. Into 17th is Norfolk, Virginia, and the Hampton Roads. It's pretty simple to say that this is not the part of the metro that is growing. We've seen increases in Suffolk, and even Virginia Beach, but Norfolk isn't a bad spot for flooding, and it has minimal room to expand, losing 4.78%. And matching the total is Memphis, Tennessee, which isn't really a good look for Norfolk. Memphis lost 30,000 residents in this time period, and there really isn't a bright side right now for the city, despite the state gaining population in other areas. Moving into our top 15, I can get a bit more detailed now on these cities, whether they're expected or unexpected. We start with Boston, Massachusetts. This is not a bad place by any means, but I would believe that these declines come from people leaving the urban area, which has become very dense and expensive. We're not seeing economic decline or crime in Boston, but these population trends make sense, losing 4.87%. Fourteenth place is a bit more expected, though, with Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Milwaukee has lost population for decades upon decades now, and even though some new buildings are going up in the downtown, the area outside of the Lower East Side have really struggled. It lost 5.38%, and now has 563,000 residents. Texas, despite having one of the fastest growing cities as well, is on this list with Beaumont. The city is an interesting one. Hurricane Harvey hit the city at the beginning of our time period, with lots of people leaving when that happened. It also relies heavily on the petrochemical industry, which has provided less jobs as of late. All in all, it lost 5.91% in our time period. Cleveland, Ohio is another Rust Belt city that continues to decline. It lost 6.2%, and we've seen these declines ever since the 50s, and I doubt it'll stop anytime soon. Shreveport, Louisiana starts out the top 10 and brings us back to struggling parts of the South. This entire state has seen some population declines, but no worse than Shreveport's 6.34%, that's brought it down to 179,000 residents. Into the Rust Belt Northeast Morph area, we have Baltimore, Maryland in 9th place. This city is getting towards rock bottom. They're struggling with the Key Bridge disaster, and they lost 40,000 residents in 5 years. That's insane. It feels like everyone there is trying to get out, and the 6.82% population decline has shown how this is going. It's the same thing with 8th place St. Louis, Missouri, which I could say almost all the same things about. St. Louis has some upscale areas, and I see a path out of this spot, but its population has decreased by 6.82%. We return to the South for 7th place with Birmingham, Alabama. Much like Shreveport, the city just doesn't have a ton going for it, and everyone that has an opportunity to move is moving to different communities or just different metropolitan areas. It lost 7.7% of its population, and just dipped below 200k. Into 6th, it's no surprise we have Detroit, Michigan. For much of the last century, this has been an example of one of the worst cities in the country. It's lost population and had way too much room for its new population. It's desolate at this point, and though it's a much better place now than it was, it's still going to take more than what they have to get out of this position. It's at 620,000 residents, and lost 7.83%, which adds up to a loss of over 50,000 residents in 5 years. That's crazy to think about, and I don't know how you financially run a city of this area. Hialeah, Florida starts out our top 5. The Floridian city is struggling from being basically totally out of room. It was never the top place to live in the Miami metro, but now people are starting to leave, and it's down to 220,000 residents, losing 8.1%. You could probably guess Illinois would be this high, but would you guess it's a Chicago suburb? This is supposed to be the part of the state that's growing, but Aurora is actually quite urban, and the way Illinois urban areas are right now, that means it's declining quickly. It lost 9.98% of its population, or 20,000 people. And I think this Rust Belt form of decline can be seen in the downtown, which doesn't look vibrant or exciting. Sorry Aurora, but I'm unimpressed. California gets the 3rd place spot with East Los Angeles. I guess this is a bit less embarrassing than normal Los Angeles, but the city lost 10.02% of its population in this time period, which I think is expected. People are leaving urban areas, especially in a city like Los Angeles, and this part of the metro doesn't have a big skyline or major attractions, it's just a struggling city that lost 10.02% in this time period. So nearly at the top, we have one you'd expect with the capital of Mississippi, Jackson. This city is struggling even worse than the rest of the state. People who live here don't want to see it turn into a government ghost town with only a capitol building, but they need to leave because there isn't economic opportunity, there isn't really anything else going for the city, and there are better places. I went here once and I wish I could say it was underrated, but losing 12.69% of its population is no surprise in my opinion. It's all the way down at 146,000 now. I went through that one quickly because first place is interesting. We have Paradise, Nevada, which may confuse you as you think to yourself, Nevada is a growing state and Los Angeles is booming in population. Well I thought the same thing too, but the city lost 22% of its population. I genuinely spent hours researching this reason, as I thought there may have been an annexation or something, but I think this population decline is real and it has to do with COVID. We all know Paradise is home to the Las Vegas Strip and the airport. These statistics include 2020, and that's where we find our answer. It's heavily, and I mean HEAVILY reliant on tourism and people flying into the airport. People stopped going to Vegas for a couple years, and this just forced people to pick up and leave town, it's the only option. I also found statistics that puts its population like 10,000 people higher, so if I had to guess I'd say it may have lost a bit less, but it's a real statistic and fact that Paradise is losing population. That's the list though, the more I look at population trends, the more interesting the nation becomes. Thinking about which areas are struggling and which are thriving gives you a whole different view on the country, and whether this is good or bad is up to you to decide. Thanks for watching.