Shreveport-Bossier City’s population shrank in the last year

Samuel Stebbins, 24/7 Wall St. via The Center Square

During the first year of the pandemic, only about 27 million Americans moved to a new home. That figure represents a 9% decline from the previous year and is the continuation of a multi-year trend in decreasing mobility rates.

People decide to move for a wide variety of reasons. Some are looking to upgrade to a nicer house or apartment. Some are moving to start a new job. Some are growing their family and need a bigger home. And some move in order to send their kids to better schools or to escape to a more hospitable climate, among any number of other reasons.

One of the most striking patterns in the latest migration data from the U.S. Census Bureau is the rapid population decline in some of the largest metropolitan areas in the country. Dozens of cities across the country have smaller populations now than they did a year ago.

Many factors unique to major cities, including high housing prices and a higher risk of exposure to COVID-19, have likely contributed to outward migration in the last year. Of course, natural change, or the total number of births less the number deaths in a given area, is also a factor in population change. And falling birth rates coupled with rising death rates during the pandemic have also contributed to population declines in many of these places.

In the Shreveport-Bossier City metro area, located in Louisiana, the population fell from 392,525 in July 2020 to 389,155 in July 2021. The 0.9% decline ranks as the 22nd highest among all U.S. metro areas.

The local population decline was driven by net migration, as 3,180 more people moved out of the metro area than moved in over the last year. Natural change, meanwhile, contributed to population decline of about 190 over the same period.