Five years after the pandemic triggered an exodus from New York City, new census data shows the city’s population is growing again. According to census data released this week, the city’s population grew by 87,184 to 8.48 million people between July 2023 and July 2024, up from 8.39 million the previous year. All five boroughs gained residents, with Manhattan leading the way with a 1.7 percent increase in population.
“The numbers do not lie. Our city’s best days still lie ahead of us. Jobs are at their highest levels in city history, crime is down across the five boroughs, and people are coming back to the greatest city on the globe,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.
“New York City has emerged from the darkest days of the pandemic and continues to take leaps towards a brighter future. Believe the hype: New York City is back.”
The data also includes a revised estimate for the year between July 2022 and July 2023, when the city grew by 34,709 people. Prior estimates showed that the population had shrank during this time, as reported by the New York Times. City officials contested the figures, arguing that the number of migrants and others living in the city’s shelters had been underestimated, particularly as the five boroughs have dealt with a now-subsiding migrant crisis that saw more than 200,000 immigrants pass through the shelter system since spring 2022.
After a brief pandemic-related decline, the city’s long-term growth trend has resumed. Between July 2023 and July 2024, international migration reached its highest levels since 2000, while domestic migration returned to figures seen in the 2000s and 2010s.
Overall, the city grew by about one percent, largely due to an influx of international residents, while a smaller number of residents moved elsewhere.
Manhattan’s population grew for the third year in a row, by 27,435 to 1.66 million residents. Brooklyn and Queens grew by about one percent, with Brooklyn adding 24,694 residents and Queens adding 22,159 residents.
The Bronx and Staten Island grew by less than one percent, with the Bronx adding 9,458 residents and Staten Island gaining 3,438. Staten Island is also the only borough to fully recover from its pandemic-related population losses.
The New York, Newark, and Jersey City Metro Area grew the most between July 2023 and July 2024 of any metro areas, adding more than 213,000 people during that time.
Additionally, the number of births and deaths has remained relatively stable, with births continuing to decline slowly, following the national trend, according to the data.
“This new data puts a number to what we’re feeling: New York City is back and growing again,” Department of City Planning Director Dan Garodnick said. “Our city remains a destination for people from around the world, and our progress is very encouraging.”
Despite the positive census data, the population of the country’s biggest city still sits at 326,118 people below its peak of 8.8 million residents achieved in early 2020. It’s likely President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies will have an impact on the city’s population, as it did in 2017, according to the Times.
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