NYC’s population shrank by 78K last year, census estimates show

The Big Apple has gotten smaller again.

Nearly 78,000 residents fled New York City last year, shrinking its population to 8.26 million people, according to the latest census estimates released Thursday.

Of the city’s five boroughs, only Manhattan saw a slight population uptick last year, adding close to 3,000 residents, according to the census data. 

The Bronx experienced the most dramatic exodus, losing nearly 1.9% of its population in 2023, or more than 25,000 residents.

Brooklyn and Queens were also in the red, shrinking by more than 28,000 and 26,000 residents, respectively. 

The great escape, however, has started to slow. In 2022, more than 126,000 New Yorkers moved out of the city, according to the data first reported by the New York Times.

Still, between April 2020 and July 2023, which coincided with the height of the COVID pandemic, the city experienced a mass exodus of 550,000 residents — shrinking its population by more than 6%.

Florida was one of the most common new homes for New Yorkers fleeing the big city last year.

At least 58,581 New Yorkers traded in their Empire State driver licenses for Florida IDs in 2023, according to numbers from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles obtained by The Post.

“I can go to the beach any time of the year,” said a TikToker named Sherelle. “I live where people vacation.”

Others have noted the dramatic difference in cost-of-living prices, with one user on the platform saying she got a “beautiful place” in the Sunshine State for the same price as “practically a closet” in NYC.

New Jersey has also become a common refuge for ex-New Yorkers.

“It’s financially a better decision for me,” said Shayla Forbes-Luong, who recently completed an NYU masters program and wanted to cut costs.

She decided to move to Jersey City last year to avoid paying New York City’s income tax, which has helped her save hundreds of dollars per month while allowing her to easily commute into town.

Living across the Hudson also enables her to live in an amenity-filled building for a fraction of the cost of what she was paying for “questionable” apartments in the Big Apple.

“They had mice, roaches. I felt very unsafe walking home at night. Just a lot of red flags,” she explained in a TikTok video.

Content Creator Tati Sprout left the city because she no longer wanted to deal with “catcalling and stalking,” and instead settled in New Jersey, too.

“I’m tired of risking my safety,” she explained in a video on her TikTok account.

The latest decline was contested by city officials, who argued that it did not fully take into account the influx of migrants that have been flooding the city, as well as people living in homeless shelters and group homes, such as nursing homes and dorms. 

Some 180,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in New York City since the start of the crisis in the spring of 2022.

“This July 2023 estimate does not fully account for changes in this population,” Casey Berkovitz, a spokesman for the Department of City Planning, told The Post in a statement. “Our analysis indicates that the city’s population was essentially unchanged between July 2022 and 2023.”

But the surge in asylum seekers is an influx that is straining city resources, with 64,600 migrants still in the city’s care as of this week. 

The city was spending an average of $387 per day to house and feed each migrant household each month over the past two years, according to the latest City Hall data.

Mayor Eric Adams expects the crisis to set the Big Apple back $10 billion through the next fiscal year.

Although the Department of City Planning is still working out the exact number of undercounted shelter residents, Berkovitz estimated that it could be more than 50,000 people.

Berkovitz said that his agency “would be working with the Census Bureau to adjust the estimate,” which is something he noted is done frequently.

He pointed out that if accurately adjusted by census officials, the city’s population would be about level between 2022 and 2023.

Beyond wanting to get an accurate population count, another major reason to challenge the estimate is the allocation of funds from what the City Planning rep described as an “alphabet soup” of federal programs.

“We want to make sure New York City is getting the funding it deserves from the federal government,” Berkovitz said.

Meanwhile, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said there is no doubt that native New Yorkers, particularly black residents, are leaving the city because it is too expensive to live, particularly citing high housing costs.

“Historically, the migration was from the south to the north. Blacks are going back south because it’s cheaper to live. I have family members who have relocated,” Richards said.

“The challenge we face is the affordability crisis. We have to do something about the cost and supply of housing.”

Still, Richards conceded that demographers have caught up with the influx, claiming there are 40,000 new migrants living in Queens.

Earlier this year, the Census Bureau added 1,090 people to New York City’s population total, after officials successfully asked the federal agency to review its 2020 head-count figures.