In the first full year of the pandemic, Sunbelt metro areas like Dallas, Phoenix and Houston have seen population growth while others have lost residents.
U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday shows the New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago metros had the greatest population losses in the nation.
On the flip side, metro Phoenix jumped by more than 78,000 people while metro Dallas grew by more than 97,000 residents.
The exodus from the biggest U.S. metros was led by New York, which lost almost 328,000 residents. It was driven by people leaving for elsewhere, even though the metro area gained new residents from abroad and births outpaced deaths.