Across the United States, many metro areas are experiencing population growth, as approximately 88% gained population between 2023 and 2024. That’s up from around 64% between 2020 and 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many areas had natural decrease (more deaths than births), slowing population growth across the nation.

During the pandemic, reduced net international migration (immigration minus emigration) and a loss of almost 200,000 between 2020 and 2021 from net domestic outmigration also curtailed the collective growth of metro areas.

In the years since, the pace of population growth in metro areas has picked up because of recent increases in net international migration and rising natural increase (more births than deaths). These changes offset net domestic outmigration from metro areas as a whole.

While the population in some metro areas has grown steadily this decade, others experienced a turnaround, as some metro areas that were declining are now growing.

Take the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metro area, for example. It lost nearly 277,000 people during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021) but has since experienced growth that made it the nation’s largest-gaining metro area between 2023 and 2024, adding over 213,000 people for a total population of around 19.9 million. The growth was largely driven by a reduction in net domestic outmigration and an increase in net international migration (Tables 1 and 2).

Similarly, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN started the decade with population loss, and have begun to experience growth.

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA went from having a loss of more than 214,000 in 2020-2021 to a gain of over 41,000 between 2023 and 2024. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN, after losses of around 77,000 in 2020-2021 and 52,000 in 2021-2022, added nearly 28,000 in 2022-2023 and approximately 71,000 in 2023-2024.

Among other notable metro areas that saw positive population turnarounds: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV; San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA; Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL; and Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH, with Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH even surpassing 5 million residents between 2023 and 2024.

Some metro areas grew more than others. Several in the South and West emerged as hot spots with both high numeric and high percentage (Figure 2) gains between 2023 and 2024.

Texas, the nation’s second most populous state in 2024, was home to over 31 million people, and several of its more populous metro areas saw large population increases over the period.

Among them:

• Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington added nearly 178,000 residents, making it the third largest-gaining metro area in the nation.
• Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands increased by over 198,000 people, second only to New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ in numeric growth.
• Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos grew by over 58,000 or 2.3%, making it one of the nation’s largest-gaining and fastest-growing metro areas.

Florida, which added over 467,000 residents between 2023 and 2024, was also home to some of the nation’s fastest-growing and largest-gaining metro areas.

Some of Florida’s major areas of growth were:

• Ocala, which grew by 4%, making it the nation’s fastest-growing metro area.
• Panama City-Panama City Beach grew by 3.8% and was the second fastest-growing metro area in the nation.
• Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida’s top numeric gainers, grew by around 123,000 and around 76,000, respectively.

Parts of North Carolina and South Carolina also experienced large numeric and high percentage population growth over the period, including:

• Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC, a coastal metro area, grew by 3.8%.
• Wilmington, NC, another coastal metro area, increased by 2.6%.
• Raleigh-Cary, NC, a fast-growing metro area with large numeric gains, grew by over 39,000 (2.6%).
• Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC, ranked 11th nationwide in annual numeric growth, added more than 61,000 residents.

To the West, Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ, continued to grow, gaining nearly 85,000 people from 2023 to 2024. Likewise, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA, also a perennial top numeric gainer, added almost 40,000 people. Both were among the nation’s largest-gaining metro areas.

Recent increases in net international migration played a major role in the population growth in many large-gaining metro areas.

While U.S. metro areas had overall negative net domestic migration, around 59% of individual metro areas experienced positive net domestic migration between 2023 and 2024.  For example, Ocala, FL and Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC were two of the fastest-growing metro areas whose population gains stemmed largely from net domestic in-migration.

And while the collective level of net domestic outmigration has varied recently, its overall negative impact on metro areas is diminishing. At the same time, natural increase is on the rise. Those factors, combined with higher net international migration, resulted in growth for many metro areas.