According to new United States Census data released Thursday, three Bay Area counties have topped the list of regions that suffered a major population drop during the height of the pandemic.
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Between April 2020 to July 2021, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Alameda counties lost a combined total of 143,312 residents as the work from home movement took hold and many employees were let go.
San Francisco was ranked as sixth in the list of top ten counties in numeric decline, while Santa Clara County was ranked seventh and Alameda County was ninth.
The Census Bureau also provided the data in percentage form, noting that San Francisco County lost 6.7% of its population during the same time period — making it the county with the second-highest population decline in the country, beat out only by New York County which lost 6.9% of its population.
San Mateo County was also ranked in the top ten counties in percent decline, losing 3.5% of its population between April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2021.
According to the data, more than 73% of U.S. counties experienced a natural population decrease in 2021, up from 45.5% in 2019 and 55.5% in 2020. "Natural decrease occurs when there are more deaths than births in a population over a given time period. In 2021, fewer births, an aging population and increased mortality — intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic — contributed to a rise in natural decrease," the U.S. Census Bureau explained.
Contrary to the Bay Area's loss of residents, Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Area saw the biggest spike in population between 2020 to 2021, boasting more than 97,000 new residents.
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