Sixty-three of the nation’s 100 most populous counties are located in the South and West, continuing decades’ worth of migration trends across the nation.
That’s according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which says the total of 63 counties in 2022 compares to 61 a year before and is up from 58 in 201, 51 in 1990 and 50 in 1980.
All 10 of the top fastest-growing counties for 2022 were in the South or West, according to the Census Bureau’s estimates of population across the nation’s 3,144 counties.
Half of the top 10 fastest-growing counties were in Texas: Kaufman County (8.9%), Rockwall County (5.7%), Parker County (5.6%), Comal County (5.6%) and Chambers County (5.3%).
The remaining fastest-growing counties were in Florida (Sumter County, 7.5%), Georgia (Dawson and Lumpkin counties, both with 5.8%) and North Carolina (Brunswick County, 5.7%).
After some of the nation’s most populous counties experienced significant outmigration and population declines in 2021, overall patterns of population growth and decline are moving towards pre-pandemic rates, the data showed.
Maricopa County, Arizona, remained the largest-gaining county in the nation, adding 56,831 residents in 2022, a gain of 1.3% since 2021.
Los Angeles County, California, (9,721,138) and Cook County, Illinois, (5,109,292) remain the two most populous counties in the nation. But Los Angeles County had the largest overall population decline in 2022 – about 90,700 people – part of an ongoing exodus of residents from California to other areas of the country, while Cook County’s decline of about 68,300 could well be due to high rates of crime.
Three New York City boroughs – Queens County, Kings County (Brooklyn) and Bronx County – were third, fourth and fifth in total numerical population decline from 2021 to 2022, although New York County (Manhattan), which had a population decline of 98,505 in 2021, rebounded with growth of 17,472 this past year.
The counties that include the cities of Philadelphia and Detroit also were among those with top-10 declines in populations from 2021 to 2022, according to the Census Bureau.
