COVID pandemic fuelled 2021 population drop in 73% of U.S. counties
Send a link to a friend
[March 24, 2022]
By Juby Babu
(Reuters) - The toll of the COVID-19
pandemic was reflected in a natural decrease last year in the population
of nearly three-quarters of U.S. counties versus the two previous years,
the census bureau said on Thursday.
More than 73% of U.S. counties experienced natural decrease, or an
excess of deaths over births, up from 55.5% in 2020 and 45.5% in 2019,
bureau data showed.
"In 2021, fewer births, an aging population and increased mortality –
intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic - contributed to a rise in natural
decrease," the U.S. Census Bureau said in a statement.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/24/images/ads/current/Armburst_welding&Repair_sda_daily_SFARM_2022.png)
The biggest loss, of 159,621 residents, was in Los Angeles county in
California, according to the data released by the bureau, as part of its
Vintage 2021 estimates of population and components of change.
All counties in Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island
experienced natural decrease in 2021, it added, while migration also led
to a decline in population for some.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/032422PIX/health13.jpg)
Children are seen walking to school, on the first day of lifting the
indoor mask mandate for DOE schools between K through 12, in
Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S., March 7, 2022.
REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/24/images/ads/current/goodman_sda_SFARM_2022.png) The fall continues a trend in which
more than half of all U.S. counties lost population over the decade
from 2010, with almost all growth taking place in metropolitan
areas, census officials said last August.
Between 2020 and 2021, population increased in about 65% of
metropolitan areas within the 50 U.S. states and the District of
Columbia.
The U.S. population grew at a slower pace in 2021 than any other
year on record as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened the more subdued
growth of recent years, the bureau has said.
(Additional reporting by Jahnavi Nidumolu in Bengaluru; Editing by
Clarence Fernandez)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/24/images/ads/current/hopedaleag_daily_sda_SFARM_2022.png) |