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Americans looking for a new home look at various factors to see what makes a desirable place to live. Future residents also pay attention to cities where people are leaving in droves. Residents flock to other locations for many reasons, including better health care services, cheaper cost of living, better amenities, and much more.
24/7 Wall St. revealed which U.S. cities are losing their residents the fastest. Analysts limited their entries to metropolitan cities and explained how they determined their picks:
"To determine the fastest shrinking large cities, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed population data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey 1-year estimates. We listed all 43 metropolitan statistical areas with at least a 3% population decline from 2017 to 2022 in order of smallest to largest decline. Supplemental data on employment in December 2017 and December 2022 as well as unemployment rates came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and are seasonally-adjusted figures. Home value data came from the ACS."
A Florida city landed in the Top 10, and it's Panama City. Located in Bay County, the city lost 17,102 people, or 8.46% of its population, between 2017 and 2022. In December 2022, researchers reported Panama City's unemployment rate at 2.4%. The median home value was $312,800 in 2022. Over 34,000 live in the city, according to estimates from census officials.
Here are the fastest-shrinking cities in the country, according to research:
- Kalamazoo-Portage, Michigan
- Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana
- Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma
- Grand Island, Nebraska
- Sioux City, Iowa-Nebraska-South Dakota
- Chico, California
- Panama City, Florida
- Bloomington, Illinois
- Blacksburg-Christiansburg, Virginia
- Champaign-Urbana, Illinois