By Hank Russell
A think tank recently released a report showing that New York State’s population has declined since the beginning of this decade.
According to The Empire Center, the state lost 1.18% of its population between 2020 and 2024, while the United States saw its population grow by 2.57%. In total, New York lost 237,923 residents during those four years. The think tank analyzed U.S. Census data and saw that New York City had a larger decline of 3%, while the suburbs saw a modest gain of 0.95%.
“Overall, New York lost more population in the first four years of this decade than any other state except West Virginia – a harbinger that New York is likely to forfeit more seats in Congress (and in the Electoral College) after the next decennial census,” said the report’s author, Bill Hammond, who is The Empire Center’s senior fellow for health policy.
Other findings in the report:
- There were 827,000 births in the state and 682,000 deaths
- 518,000 people came to New York via immigration.
- 894,000 people left the state. According to census estimates for the first three years of the decade, the most popular destination for departing New Yorkers was Florida, followed by New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
Meanwhile, Long Island saw incremental gains in its population — only 0.5% from 2020 to 2024, based on Empire Center data. However, it is one of only three regions in the state with increases in population (Mid-Hudson had a 1.5% change and the Capital Region saw a 0.9% rise in its populace.)
Suffolk and Nassau had the fourth- and fifth-highest populations as of July 2024, respectively, according to the Empire Center. There were 1,535,909 people who live in Suffolk, while there were 1,392,438 Nassau residents. Since July 2020, Suffolk had the largest population gain with an additional 13,734 people coming to the county. Nassau experienced a four-year increase of 1,854 residents — 13th in the state.
The Empire Center also found that Nassau only had a 0.1% increase in residents over the same four-year period — 12th in the state — while Suffolk’s population went up 0.9%, which was only the 20th-highest.
What dragged down the state was the outmigration of New York City, which saw 262,234 people leaving the city from 2020 to 2024.
“These trends point to the need for a new direction in state and city policy, one that prioritizes affordability and economic opportunity while avoiding the excessive taxes and regulations that make it hard to live and do business in New York,” Hammond said.