Small Towns Grow Faster Than Cities for First Time in Decades

Cities of 4 million or more people lost 600,000 residents to domestic migration.

1 minute read

May 15, 2024, 10:00 AM PDT

By Diana Ionescu @aworkoffiction


A small town in the U.S. Midwest at dusk, with cars parked on a street lined with historic buildings and a water tower in the distance.

Columbia, Missouri. | Sean Pavone / Shutterstock

More people moved to small U.S. cities and towns (those with populations less than 250,000) in 2023 than to larger cities, according to data from the University of Virginia. Writing in Bloomberg CityLab, Michael Sasso notes that the growth is attributed in large part to the persistence of remote work.

Towns under 250,000 people grew by 291,400. This is the first time small towns gained more population since at least the 1970s.“Areas with more than 4 million people were the big losers, shedding almost 600,000 people last year, according to Lombard’s research using US Census Bureau data.”

Tuesday, May 7, 2024 in Bloomberg CityLab

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