big city – A Trump administration immigration policy is forcing green card applicants to apply from abroad, while Census Bureau data shows many of America’s biggest cities saw their post-pandemic population gains stall or reverse in 2025. Analysts point to a sharp drop i
For years, America’s largest cities appeared to be turning a corner after the pandemic—regaining residents after early losses. In 2025, the pattern started to break.
Census Bureau estimates for population changes between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025 show the U.S. population grew by 1.8 million people, or 0.5%, the slowest rate since the pandemic. And for many big metros, that national slowdown translated into local reversals—after two years of improvement.
Under a new Trump administration policy. DHS is telling green card applicants they “must return to their home country to apply.” The change adds a new barrier for people seeking lawful permanent residency. Demographers and migration researchers say the timing lines up with what the Census data is showing: a steep drop in net international migration that large cities had been counting on.
Nearly half of the largest U.S. cities had reported fewer residents in 2022 than in 2020. By 2024, two-thirds of these cities had begun adding residents again. But in 2025, almost all saw that momentum fade, with many recording resident losses.
New York City illustrates the swing. The city lost more than 388. 000 residents—about 4.5% of its population—between 2020 and 2022. and then regained more than half of those residents over the next two years. That recovery did not hold. Despite remaining the nation’s most populated city. New York recorded the biggest numeric population loss between 2024 and 2025. with more than 12. 000 fewer residents.
Los Angeles lost nearly 4,000 residents in 2025, while Boston shed over 1,000 compared with the year before. These were statistically flat declines in cities that had been recovering from pandemic-era outflows.
In some places, the reversal never came. Memphis in Tennessee, Albuquerque in New Mexico, and St. Louis in Missouri shed population during COVID and have continued to lose residents every year since.
Experts tied much of the shift to one major factor: the sharp decline in net international migration. William Frey. a demographer with the Brookings Institution. said domestic migration tends to be “zero-sum. ” while immigration is more broadly spread across the country—making the effect more pervasive when it falls. Frey added that all 56 major metro areas with populations over 1 million experienced declines in immigration.
The broader data also points to the way affordability is reshaping where people live. The high cost of living in big cities has pushed residents to move to the suburbs. Census data shows population growth in midsize cities held relatively steady. and some midsize cities on the edge of metro areas grew faster than the metro itself.
Port Chester. a village in New York. recorded a 4.1% population increase. while its nearest big city. New York City. saw a 0.1% decline. Roughly 40 miles from Dallas. Celina. Texas—described as a medium-sized city with a population of over 64. 000—saw a 25% increase in population. while Dallas recorded a 0.1% decrease.
Matt Erickson, a statistician in the Census Bureau’s Population Division, said midsized cities found what he described as a “Goldilocks zone,” where domestic and international migration paired with new housing helped prevent the sluggish growth seen in small towns and larger metropolitan centers.
The slowdown has a clear footprint. About a third of America’s biggest cities have fewer residents today than they did five years ago.
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, framed the housing pressure in blunt terms when describing coastal metropolitan cities. “These are some of the most expensive places to live,” he said, adding that people move to more affordable areas.
But Bier also warned that what comes next may be worse. He cautioned that the census estimates capture only a partial impact of recent immigration policies under President Donald Trump. When the next year’s numbers are released—covering July 2025 to July 2026—Bier said he expected a steeper decline.
Immigration, Frey said, plays a key role in sustaining population growth in many large U.S. cities. Without that inflow. cities that rely on immigration to offset domestic out-migration and aging populations may struggle to maintain growth in total population. child population. and working-age population. He said immigrants not only contribute to the size of the population but also make it younger. and that a long decline can alter the age structure—eventually affecting the number of births. though it can take a few years for that to show up.
The thread running through the numbers is hard to ignore: after pandemic-era losses. large cities were regaining residents. but the 2025 estimates show that recovery stalling across many of the country’s most populous metro areas. With DHS guidance now requiring green card applicants to “return to their home country to apply. ” the question is no longer whether big cities can bounce back—it’s how long they can without the influx they’ve depended on.
Census Bureau immigration policy green card applicants DHS net international migration New York City population Los Angeles population Boston population Brookings Cato Institute housing costs domestic migration midsize cities