The number of immigrants nearly tripled in the 20 most populous counties in the United States from 2021 to 2022, as immigration returned to pre-pandemic levels nationwide, according to the Census Bureau’s report on Thursday (30).
However, many of these counties are still losing residents to suburbs and other regions of the country, where the overall population is growing more slowly, with some communities struggling to maintain population levels.
Los Angeles County in California, Cook County, which includes Chicago in Illinois, and the neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens in New York have lost population.
In total, the 20 largest counties in the country gained more than 300,000 new residents between July 2021 and July 2022 through international immigration. In some of these counties, such as San Diego, Miami-Dade, and King County in Washington, which includes Seattle, immigration stabilized population numbers that would otherwise have declined.
Many newcomers were drawn to large cities with more liberal immigration laws.
Historically, immigration has been crucial for the growth of the country’s major cities, which have long experienced outflows of residents each year.
Source: The New York Times