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By Mike Schneider

The Associated Press

Ko Im always thought she would live in New York forever. She knew every corner of Manhattan and had worked hard to build a community of friends. Living in a small apartment, she found her attitude shifting early in the coronavirus pandemic. After her brother accepted a job in Seattle in the summer of 2020, she decided to move there too.

鈥淚t was fine until it wasn鈥檛,鈥� Im, 36, said of her time in New York. 鈥淭he pandemic really changed my mindset about how I wanted to live or how I needed to live.鈥�

Eight of the 10 largest cities in the U.S. lost population during聽the first year of the pandemic, with New York, Los Angeles and Chicago leading the way. Between July 2020 and July 2021, New York lost more than 305,000 people, while Chicago and Los Angeles contracted by 45,000 residents and 40,000 people, respectively.

San Francisco suffered the largest rate of decline, losing almost 55,000 residents, or 6.3 percent of its 2020 population.

The population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau capture a time early in the pandemic and don鈥檛 reflect changes since last summer. Whether the virus has permanently altered the urban landscape of the U.S. remains an open question.

Brookings Institution demographer William Frey said he believes the population declines in most of the largest U.S. cities from 2020 to 2021 have been 鈥渟hort-lived and pandemic-related.鈥�

Among the 10 largest U.S. cities, only San Antonio and Phoenix gained new residents. But they added only about 13,000 people each, or less than 1 percent of their populations, according to the bureau鈥檚 2021 vintage population estimates.

Justin Jordan鈥檚 move to Phoenix a year ago was motivated by a job offer paying him more money than the one in Moundsville, West Virginia, where he had been living. He has had to adjust to temperatures of 110 degrees Fahrenheit and unwieldy traffic.

鈥淚 love the weather, the atmosphere, and all the stuff to do,鈥� said Jordan, 33, a senior operations manager for a business services firm.

Other sizable cities 鈥� Austin and Fort Worth in Texas; Jacksonville, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Columbus, Ohio 鈥� also registered modest population gains.

In March, the Census Bureau聽released estimates for metro areas and counties聽showing changes from mid-2020 to mid-2021. The estimates released Thursday offer a more granular perspective. For instance, the March data聽showed metro Dallas聽had the largest population gain 鈥� more than 97,000 people 鈥� of any metro area in the U.S., but Thursday鈥檚 estimates show the city of Dallas lost almost 15,000 residents. The growth occurred in Dallas suburbs like Frisco, McKinney and Plano.

Reasons for population changes vary from city to city, and are driven by housing costs, jobs, births and deaths.聽The pandemic and the lockdown聽that followed in spring 2020 made living in a crowded city less appealing for a time, and those who could leave 鈥� workers who could do their jobs remotely, for example 鈥� sometimes did.

Daniel Akerman, a New York real estate agent, said the Census Bureau data, which don鈥檛 go past July 2021, fail to capture how people have returned to the city in the past year. He said real estate transactions have skyrocketed and numbers of available rental apartments have dropped.

鈥淧eople have definitely returned to the city; there are a lot more people on the streets,鈥� Akerman said. 鈥淚n July 2021, people were still guarded about COVID and a lot of that has gone away. People are a lot more free. They are out and about, going to restaurants.鈥�

New York Mayor Eric Adams has made it a priority to get New Yorkers back to the city and recently launched a campaign to try to lure Floridians to New York following passage of legislation in the Sunshine State聽forbidding instruction on sexual orientation聽in kindergarten through third grade, said Fabien Levy, the mayor鈥檚 press secretary. New Yorkers historically have been the largest domestic source of new Floridians.

鈥淲ith job growth faster than the rest of the nation, an economy on the rise, a reduction in crime, and more accepting practices than Florida and other states, New York City is a welcoming and accepting place for all,鈥� Levy stated in an email.

When it came to growth rates, as opposed to raw numbers, the fastest-growing cities with populations of at least 50,000 residents were in the suburbs of booming metro areas in the Sun Belt. They included Georgetown and Leander outside Austin; the town of Queen Creek and the cities of Buckeye, Casa Grande and Maricopa outside Phoenix; the city of New Braunfels outside San Antonio; and Fort Myers, Florida. They had growth rates of between 6.1 percent and 10.5 percent.

As metro Austin has grown by leaps and bounds, so has Georgetown, located more than 25 miles north of the Texas capital, said Keith Hutchinson, the city鈥檚 communications manager. The city grew by 10.5 percent, the most in the nation last year, and now has 75,000 residents.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not really a surprise,鈥� Hutchinson said. 鈥淧eople are moving here for jobs.鈥�

The estimates also showed population declines of 3 percent to 3.5 percent in New Jersey cities outside New York, such as Union City, Hoboken and Bayonne. Similar declines occurred outside San Francisco in Daly City, Redwood City and San Mateo, as well as Cupertino in Silicon Valley.

Lake Charles, Louisiana, which was devastated by Hurricane Laura in 2020, lost almost 5 percent of its residents, the second-highest rate in the U.S. behind San Francisco.

Though the Category 4 storm was the driver there, elsewhere, the pandemic created opportunities to move. Andrew Mazur, 31, had been wanting for some time to leave Philadelphia for South Florida where he grew up, and the chance to work remotely for a large professional services firm arrived in November 2020. He joined almost 25,000 residents who left Philadelphia between 2020 and 2021.

Although he now needs a car to get around, Mazur loves golfing every weekend and going to the beach. He recently moved out of his parents鈥� home and into his own apartment in Fort Lauderdale. He made the move official three weeks ago by obtaining a Florida driver鈥檚 license.

鈥淚鈥檓 not going back,鈥� Mazur said. 鈥淚t has been great. Philly, New York, Chicago 鈥� tons of people from there are moving down here.鈥�