Americans have been leaving the nation’s biggest cities in droves in recent years in favor of small towns as crime, immigration and high taxes leave people seeking a different way of life.
In the three years leading up to the pandemic, counties encompassing metro areas with a million residents or more lost 200,000 residents yearly to other regions, on average. The pandemic only served to accelerate this trend, with the average loss climbing to 750,000 in 2021 and 650,000 in 2022.
Statistics show that a lot of these people are moving to small towns, a trend that has not been seen in the U.S. since at least the 1970s. Although big cities are still seeing a modest rise in their populations due to surging international immigrants, they’re struggling to keep Americans in town.
The figures from 2023 tell an interesting story. That year, the New York City metro area lost 204,000…
