How Did COVID Change The Population Of PA Cities?

PENNSYLVANIA — A new Census report released Thursday showed Pennsylvania's population declined from 2021 to 2022 as population trends settled out from pandemic-era migration away from large metro areas to suburbs.

The 2022 population estimate shows that, overall, the moves away from big cities (those with populations of more than 1 million) for places with fewer people were not permanent. But only about half of mid-sized cities saw an increase in their populations over the period, and America’s small towns saw uneven growth patterns.

Of the 10 largest cities, all but Philadelphia reversed their population losses. Cities experiencing the biggest turnarounds were San Francisco, Seattle, Nashville, Boston, New York City, San Jose, Dallas and Milwaukee.

Philly was still the sixth-most populous city in the country in 2022, with a population of 1.56 million. The city’s population declined by about 23,000 people between July 2020 and July 2022, based on Census estimates.

The Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area has a population of 6.24 million people as of July 2022, Census data showed.

Pittsburgh did not have a significant population change from 2020 to 2022.

Overall, Pennsylvania had a decrease of about 22,400 people from July 2020 to July 2022, per Census data.

Only about half of mid-sized cities with populations between 50,000 and 500,000 saw any recovery from pandemic population losses, according to an analysis of the data by William Frey, a senior demographer at the Brookings Institute.

About 40 percent of the nation’s population (129.6 million people) lived in cities of 50,000 or more people in 2022, but America remains a nation of small towns.

Of approximately 19,500 incorporated towns, 75 percent had fewer than 5,000 people, and 33 percent had fewer than 500. In these communities, growth was uneven from 2021 to 2022.

In general, the population of small towns declined by 0.4 percent in the Northeast and 0.2 percent in the Midwest, and grew by 0.4 percent in the South and 0.5 percent in the West.

Here’s a look at the estimated population change in other cities and towns in our area from July 2020 to July 2022.

• Pittsburgh: Increase of 136
• Allentown: Decline of 628
• Reading: Decline of 114
• Erie: Decrease of 1,193
• Bethlehem: Increase of 1,920