Johnstown, PA’s Population Shrank in the Last Year

During the first year of the pandemic, only about 27 million Americans moved to a new home. That figure represents a 9% decline from the previous year and is the continuation of a multi-year trend in decreasing mobility rates.

People decide to move for a wide variety of reasons. Some are looking to upgrade to a nicer house or apartment. Some are moving to start a new job. Some are growing their family and need a bigger home. And some move in order to send their kids to better schools or to escape to a more hospitable climate, among any number of other reasons.

One of the most striking patterns in the latest migration data from the U.S. Census Bureau is the rapid population decline in some of the largest metropolitan areas in the country. Dozens of cities across the country have smaller populations now than they did a year ago.

Many factors unique to major cities, including high housing prices and a higher risk of exposure to COVID-19, have likely contributed to outward migration in the last year. Of course, natural change, or the total number of births less the number deaths in a given area, is also a factor in population change. And falling birth rates coupled with rising death rates during the pandemic have also contributed to population declines in many of these places.

In the Johnstown metro area, located in Pennsylvania, the population fell from 132,957 in July 2020 to 132,167 in July 2021. The 0.6% decline ranks as the 36th highest among all U.S. metro areas.

The local population decline was driven by natural change, as the metro area recorded 920 more deaths than births over the past year. Net migration, meanwhile, contributed to population growth of about 120 over the same period.