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U.S. Cities that Have Lost 100,000 People

Can you name the cities in the U.S which have lost at least 100,000 since they reached their peak population?
As of 2022
By city proper population
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: May 20, 2023
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First submittedNovember 19, 2020
Times taken22,716
Average score56.5%
Rating4.44
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Loss
%
Peak
Answer
1,229,192
66%
1950
Detroit
955,923
26%
1950
Chicago
570,218
67%
1950
St. Louis
553,201
60%
1950
Cleveland
504,347
24%
1950
Philadelphia
468,297
5%
2020
New York City
379,777
40%
1950
Baltimore
373,908
55%
1950
Pittsburgh
303,646
52%
1950
Buffalo
257,776
41%
1960
New Orleans
194,485
39%
1950
Cincinnati
178,019
24%
1960
Milwaukee
Loss
%
Peak
Answer
157,338
4%
2019
Los Angeles
150,738
19%
1950
Boston
143,977
42%
1960
Birmingham
133,432
30%
1950
Newark
130,375
16%
1950
Washington D.C.
126,388
48%
1960
Dayton
123,136
37%
1950
Rochester
117,517
31%
1970
Toledo
117,086
59%
1960
Flint
110,858
65%
1930
Youngstown
110,348
62%
1960
Gary
+39
Level ∞
Nov 21, 2020
I visited Detroit recently. It's improving. The downtown area is almost nice now, although it did still feel a bit deserted (Covid-related possibly). There were lots of townhouses and condos under construction as well as a giant skycraper at the former site of the Hudson's department store. The city should build a statue of Dan Gilbert next to the one of Robocop.
+6
Level 79
Nov 26, 2020
If Detroit wants to thank someone, it should be Mike Ilitch.
+2
Level 77
Dec 16, 2020
Hahahaha, you forgot the /sarcasm tag
+4
Level ∞
May 20, 2023
The Little Caesar's headquarters was also there. I would be okay with them building a smaller statue of Ilitch next to the Dan Gilbert and Robocop statues.
+6
Level 60
Dec 16, 2020
Detroit also inaugurated a very beautiful new light railway called the Q Line
+6
Level 69
Dec 16, 2020
I live about a mile from downtown Detroit and can definitely attest to covid being the reason it's so empty. We were Christmas shopping last weekend downtown and there was literally 1/10th the number of people as last Christmastime. Come back when covid is over- there's so much to see!
+1
Level 46
Nov 21, 2020
Good Quiz!
+10
Level 55
Nov 21, 2020
Detroit can hopefully make a recovery. I live in one of the better, metro Detroit suburbs. Once someone tries to get the crime down, the population will go up. The suburb I live in is an exact opposite of the D. we grow by about 4,000 people a year in Troy, and we are almost at 100k.
+10
Level 75
Dec 16, 2020
That's starting the story at about the twelfth chapter. Suburban flight is related to the hollowing out of Detroit - it's not a counter-example.
+4
Level 43
Dec 21, 2020
I was just about to say the same
+6
Level 69
Dec 16, 2020
We recently moved from Grosse Pointe to Detroit (Corktown) and couldn't be happier with our decision! There's a lot of potential in this city right now.
+2
Level 47
Dec 16, 2020
The Detroit metropolitan area is a completely different story. Most cities will find a better qaulity of life in the suburbs than in the inner city, but Detroit is almost night and day.
+3
Level ∞
May 20, 2023
Troy has grown by only 6,242 people total since the 2000 census, but did grow quickly before that.

Many Detroit suburbs are shrinking.

+11
Level 84
Nov 21, 2020
Surprising how few people guessed New Orleans given Hurricane Katrina. How soon we forget.
+4
Level 72
Nov 29, 2020
A lot of these cities had their peak in 1950, wonder what happened in that year.
+19
Level 92
Dec 2, 2020
The Census. The real question is what happened over the next decade to make the 1960 Census lower.
+19
Level 64
Dec 16, 2020
The biggest answer is widespread indoor air conditioning. Florida was a humid hellhole before A/C, and the Sun belt was known as such for a reason. Entire metroplexes such as Phoenix and Vegas would be basically unlivable without A/C.
+8
Level 75
Dec 17, 2020
That was a big reason. Widespread capital flight to the non-unionized South and overseas is another.
+9
Level 89
Dec 5, 2020
Cheap construction, cars, suburbs, small city limits after a massive influx due to World War 2.
+5
Level 78
Dec 19, 2020
Long-term since then: Baby Boomers retiring and being sick of the snow and cold. Many people in the Northeast and Great Lakes region retire and move to Florida or Arizona, trading in over five feet of snow for hurricanes or the inability to go outside without it being 120F.
+4
Level ∞
May 20, 2023
The freeway system and urban crime.
+1
Level 78
May 20, 2023
When my dad was growing up, there were no freeways. When he was in his twenties, there were freeways. People moved out of the cities to suburbs. Cleveland, for example was up close to a million people in 1950 with Cuyahoga County being at 1.4 million. In 2020, Cleveland is down to 350,000 but Cuyahoga County is a bit less than 1.3 million. In 1950, the Greater Cleveland region (Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Medina, and Lorain Counties) had 1.7 million while in 2020 it had 2.1 million. Summit and Portage Counties are not counted since they are Greater Akron, but there are places in Summit County that are closer to Cleveland than to Akron. The place I work has more people from Greater Cleveland than Greater Akron, but we are technically in the Greater Akron area (by about 2000 feet). So, while the cities have lost population, their regions, mostly, have gained population.
+1
Level 68
Jun 7, 2023
How good are you at the name all the counties quiz? (:
+1
Level 52
Mar 27, 2024
Loss of industrial jobs is a big part of the story. A lot of those cities are in the rust belt (Ohio in particular).
+1
Level 32
Dec 5, 2020
i thought atlanta was one
+8
Level 61
Dec 16, 2020
Actually like a lot of southern cities they are growing and have been the last 2 decades. They are getting away from manufacturing and agriculture and moving to tech and banking along with other industries.
+3
Level 54
Dec 16, 2020
All of them in 1950s and 1960s... except New York. Pretty soon Los Angeles will be on this list
+2
Level 89
Oct 16, 2021
That estimate was way off base. As of the 2020 Census, New York City has 600,000+ more people than its previous all time high in 2010.
+5
Level ∞
May 20, 2023
And now 450,000 less in just two years! Crazy.
+1
Level 89
May 20, 2023
The estimates before and after official censuses always go out the window. The 2019 estimate I was referring to missed the mark by over half a million in the official count in 2020. Not that official counts are super accurate, but the Census Bureau estimates are based on moving van rentals. People who move locally or long distance, borrowing their brother's pickup truck are outside the Bureau's wild guesses.

I for one have only been counted in one Census in my entire life. I know a very high percentage of people who don't get counted.

+1
Level 75
Jun 26, 2023
Statistics as a science is not quite so simple. I'm pretty sure the Census Bureau is aware that it's possible to relocate without renting a truck. There are corollaries to the numbers they use that reliably indicate other true things.
+9
Level 68
Dec 16, 2020
liberal policies everyone
+2
Level 57
Dec 16, 2020
I live in Boston, and I'm happy the population has fallen. Obviously I haven't really felt the affect, but where I live is far too densely populated.
+23
Level 71
Dec 16, 2020
It's actually mostly to do with the fact that most of these are Northeast/Rust Belt cities. A lot of people probably left due to deindustrialization. An even bigger factor, however, is simply the expansion of suburbs and transportation in the 50s and 60s. Looking at metropolitan area instead of city proper will tell a very different story for many of these cities. Add in migration to the South in recent decades due to weather/economic growth, and you have a perfect recipe for population decline.
+21
Level 69
Dec 16, 2020
It definitely is not that simple, but of course there's always someone with an agenda who makes this comment. Look at a list of all the fastest growing cities and you'll also see that they're predominantly liberal cities in conservative states. Globalization, manufacturing technology, global recessions, retirees moving to warmer places and a whole host of reasons explain the decline in population in most of these cities.
+2
Level 78
May 20, 2023
I'm from the Cleveland area. Cleveland itself has shrunk. Cuyahoga County has grown. Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio have all grown, including the three counties that always vote blue (they are also the three counties that have grown the most).
+4
Level 65
May 23, 2023
Curious how a quiz about cities, which almost always vote blue, will have an outcome favorable to your politics. If you simply looked at statistics on cities growing the fastest, you will find them to also be blue. Curious.
+1
Level 75
Jun 26, 2023
Have you ever considered looking at population trends in the cities, towns, or counties with conservative policies? Try it.
+6
Level 71
Dec 16, 2020
RIP Ohio
+3
Level 55
Dec 16, 2020
I am not sure you can say RIP to all of Ohio. Columbus is a growing city. Like many have mentioned above the city "proper" might have lower numbers but add in the Suburbs and these areas are still strong. Ohio is a great state with a low cost of living compared to many other areas.
+2
Level 89
May 20, 2023
Columbus has very large city limits and annexes land, unlike most Northeast & Great Lakes cities that are hemmed into small city limits from before the 1950 zenith.
+2
Level 60
Dec 17, 2020
As an Ohioan, I would venture to say that there has been a steady rise in state population since the 50's. What you see here, as well as many examples on this quiz, is the majority of the metropolitan populations living in suburban areas outside of city lines. This is very evident in the cities seen above such as Cleveland, Cincy, Dayton, Toledo, etc. Columbus is a bit of an anomaly as its surrounding area has grown in population much more recently than its in state counterparts. CBus incorporates much of the area surrounding downtown (pretty much everything inside of the 270 loop if you are familiar with its geography and roads) into Columbus proper. This creates a statistical phenomenon that would appear to show CBus as a mega city compared to the rest of the cities in Ohio, when CBus, Cincy, and CLE all have incredibly similar metro populations in the low 2 million range, while Toledo, Dayton, and even Akron are between 600K and 800K. In short, Ohio doesn't need your RIP. Were alive
+3
Level 78
Dec 19, 2020
Akron is basically an extension of Cleveland's metro area, anyways. Akron doesn't have its own media market and the suburbs of the two are continuous. You can drive north from some Cleveland suburbs into Akron's suburbs due to where the county line between Cuyahoga and Summit is.
+3
Level 78
Dec 19, 2020
Cleveland's population has significantly dropped since 1950 but the population of Cuyahoga County has significantly increased in the same time period. The Cleveland Metro area is much larger than when Cleveland had close to a million people. Akron is a different area, but the suburbs of the two are continuous and some Akron suburbs are closer to Cleveland than to Akron due to county lines. As fleshero01 said, Columbus used to have the policy of incorporating any suburb that wanted to use Columbus water, sewer, or power. Cleveland doesn't do that and as a result, Cuyahoga County and the wider Cleveland-Akron metro area has many more people than Franklin County and the Columbus metro area.
+5
Level 85
Dec 17, 2020
As a 5th generation Floridian, I sure wish many of these cities would take their people back.
+4
Level 45
May 22, 2021
Fun fact: up until recently, the city of Detroit didn't have a large grocery store in its city limits. I'm guessing this is because of the crime rates?
+6
Level ∞
May 20, 2023
Yes, it's because of crime. Interestingly, there are a lot of Chaldeans (Iraqi Christians) who own convenience stores in Detroit. Since no one else wants to do it, they can charge high prices, and many Chaldeans have made a small fortune running the stores. But before you accuse them of profiting off a vulnerable population, consider that they put their lives at risk every day. Anyone could come in and offer lower prices and get a lot of business. But they would have to accept the risk of being robbed, beaten, and murdered. Only new immigrants are tough enough to deal with this, and that's why they run the stores.

I think there is now a Whole Foods in the downtown area. It might work because there is private security in that area.

+1
Level 41
Jun 24, 2021
Minneapolis also lost over 100k people. It sits at around 420k people currently, but its peak was around 560k
+2
Level ∞
May 20, 2023
Close but not quite.

Highest was 521,718 in 1950.

Currently 425,096.

+1
Level 76
Jul 8, 2021
Somehow I got Flint, Dayton, Toledo, and Youngstown by just guessing random midwest cities and never thought of Philly, Pittsburgh, or Buffalo. Didn't think of New Orleans either what with the Katrina factor.
+1
Level 76
Jul 31, 2021
If we're going by the demographics part of wikipedia, then Youngstown actually peaked in the 1930's, and Washington D.C. should also be on this list. If there is a different source being used, I would like to know.
+1
Level ∞
May 20, 2023
Fixed, thank you.
+1
Level 89
Oct 16, 2021
According to the 2020 Census, New York City has 600,000+ more people than its previous all time high in 2010. The 2019 growth and loss estimates here turned out to be way off in a lot of cases.
+1
Level ∞
May 20, 2023
Now down 450,000 since then. The 2020 Census was weird and I can't explain the New York numbers. Maybe there was a change in methodology? Maybe the Census got better at finding people?

But keep in mind that the 2020 Census was based on April 2020 numbers so the Covid exodus hadn't started yet.

+1
Level 73
Nov 12, 2021
The interesting fact below the quiz:

"The name Gary saw a huge surge in popularity starting in the mid-1920s when actor Frank Cooper changed his screen name to Gary Cooper in honor of his agent's hometown of Gary, Indiana."

I did get Gary!

+1
Level 74
Nov 27, 2021
Despite DC's population growth and success in recent years, I believe it still has a population more than 100,000 below its peak of over 800,000.
+1
Level ∞
May 20, 2023
Yes, added/
+1
Level 69
Jun 27, 2022
Shouldn't Washington D.C. be on here? It peaked at 800,000 in 1950 and now has 685,000.
+1
Level 48
Oct 5, 2022
You should put Louisville on here. They lost half of their population.
+1
Level 89
May 20, 2023
Then merged with much of their county to statistically hold more people within new, huge city limits.
+3
Level 59
Feb 13, 2023
I live in a former eastern block country (Czech republic) and i belive one of the main reasons why especialy the mid-west lost so much urban population is that they moved most of their industry to cheap asian markets. Here after the revolution were the largest reasons of population drop was corruption and badly made privatization that destroyed much of the industry and (that) hurt the economy.
+1
Level 65
May 21, 2023
Good quiz, but I think Akron, Ohio should also be on this list. It peaked at over 290,000 in 1960 and just hit 100,000 lost residents.
+1
Level ∞
May 21, 2023
Looks like you are right. I will add this next time the quiz is updated.
+1
Level 66
Jun 7, 2023
I see lots of cities that wanted to make a big show out of the "pandemic". Good riddance.
+3
Level 77
Jun 13, 2023
Not to mention all those cities who say the earth is round!
+1
Level 75
Jun 26, 2023
You're going to have to work a little harder to make that case convincingly. Did the cities not on this list make different choices? Do you even know what the policies were in each of these places?
+1
Level 65
Jun 8, 2023
The cities on this list each have one or more of the following qualities: loss of manufacturing jobs from outsourcing, high crime rates, and/or extremely high costs of living.