San Francisco Lost 6.3% of Its Population in Pandemic; Most Among U.S. Cities

The city of San Francisco, California, lost 6.3% of its population from July 2020 to July 2021, the most of any U.S. city.

That’s according to U.S. Census data, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, amid a work-from-home trend in the tech sector:

The city lost 54,813 people, or 6.3% of its population, from July 2020 to July 2021. One pandemic year erased a decade of tech-fueled population boom: San Francisco’s 815,201 residents as of July 2021 was the lowest since 2010, according to census data.

New York had the second-highest percentage drop, losing 3.5% of residents or over 305,000 people. The country’s most densely populated county, Manhattan, was the hardest-hit New York borough, losing 6.6% of its population.

…

The 15 fastest growing U.S. cities were concentrated in the west and south regions, including in Arizona, Texas, Florida and Idaho. Two suburbs north of Austin, Georgetown and Leander, Texas, added a combined 13,352 people, each growing more than 10% during the 12-month period. That was the nation’s highest two rates for cities with 50,000 or more people.

San Francisco’s rapid depopulation was also assisted by high housing costs, the Chronicle reported. San Francisco in particular has struggled to deal with homelessness, drug use, and petty crime, problems that have recently become worse.

Many cities also experienced a rise in crime and disorder following the Black Lives Matter riots of the summer of 2020.

Overall, the State of California lost 1% of its population in 2021, seeing more than 367,000 residents move to other states.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.