The Quad Cities area lost nearly 2,000 in population from 2020 to 2021, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report released Thursday.
The metropolitan statistical area went from 383,526 people in 2020 to 381,568 last year, a loss of 1,958. The Census Bureau includes Scott, Rock Island, Henry and Mercer counties in the QC MSA.
The combination of births and deaths over the year resulted in a natural loss of 381 people, while migration within the U.S. produced a loss of 1,835 from the QC, according to the Census Bureau. The area did gain 213 residents internationally, including refugees moving in.
The QC total population change was relatively flat between 2010 and 2019, losing 509 people, or a net loss of just 0.1 percent.
In 2021, fewer births, an aging population and increased mortality – intensified by the COVID pandemic — contributed to a rise in natural decrease, the Census Bureau reported of the nation’s 384 metropolitan statistical areas, 543 micropolitan statistical areas and 3,143 counties.
In 2021, all counties in Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island experienced natural decrease. Some counties also experienced population declines attributable to migration.
Counties with net international migration loss (more people moving out of than into the country), were most frequently found in California (41.4%), Oregon (27.8%) and Mississippi (23.2%), a Census Bureau release says.
Illinois among states with biggest loss
States with the highest percentages of counties with net domestic migration loss (people moving from one area to another within the United States) were Alaska (80.0%), Louisiana (71.9%) and Illinois (65.7%).
Most of the nation’s counties – 2,063 or 65.6% — experienced positive domestic migration overall from 2020 to 2021. Arizona’s Maricopa County gained the most (46,866) residents from domestic migration, followed by Riverside County, California (31,251), and Collin County, Texas (30,191). Los Angeles County, California, experienced the greatest net domestic migration loss (179,757 residents), followed by New York County, New York (113,642).
“The patterns we’ve observed in domestic migration shifted in 2021,” Dr. Christine Hartley, assistant division chief for estimates and projections in the Census Bureau’s Population Division, said in the release. “Even though over time we’ve seen a higher number of counties with natural decrease and net international migration continuing to decline, in the past year, the contribution of domestic migration counteracted these trends so there were actually more counties growing than losing population.”
In many cases, there was a shift from larger, more populous counties to medium and smaller ones. These patterns contributed to population increases in 1,822 counties (58%), while 1,313 (41.8%) lost residents, and eight (0.3%) saw no change in population.
Of the 384 metro areas in the 50 states and District of Columbia, 213 (55.5%) experienced natural decrease in 2021, with Pittsburgh, PA (-10,838); Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL (-9,291); and North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL (-6,643) having the highest levels.
Sixty-three percent of metro areas had positive net domestic migration, with Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ (66,850); Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX (54,319); and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL (42,089) seeing the largest net domestic migration gains.
The largest metropolitan net domestic migration losses were in New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA (385,455); Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA (204,776); San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA (128,870); and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI (106,897).
Additional Highlights
- Growth and decline:
- Five of the top 10 largest-gaining counties in 2021, were in Texas. Collin, Fort Bend, Williamson, Denton and Montgomery counties gained a combined 145,663 residents.
- Los Angeles County, California experienced the largest population loss of any county, losing 159,621 residents in 2021.
- Seventy-one percent of counties (2,218) experienced positive net international migration.
- Four counties crossed the threshold of 100,000 residents in 2021—Cleveland County, North Carolina (100,359), Lancaster County, South Carolina (100,336), Bastrop County, Texas (102,058), and Grant County, Washington (100,297).
- Los Angeles County, California (9,829,544) and Cook County, Illinois (5,173,146), had more than 5 million residents in 2021, making them the top two most populous counties in the nation.
For more information, visit the Census Bureau website.