New York City population is at an all-time high, with an estimated 8,336,697 residents living in its five boroughs, according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
More people moved into New York City in 2012 than moved out, marking the first time that’s happened in more than 60 years.
Some 12,200 more people moved into the city than left it, with large immigrant populations adding to the city’s ever-changing dynamic.
All five of NYC’s boroughs gained residents, Michael Bloomberg said, using the latest estimates from the US Census Bureau.
Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, Mayor Bloomberg added the moderate boom “reverses a trend that has been a fact of life for decades and that a number of pundits have talked about when they predicted the end of New York City”.
The urban flight started slowly in the years after World War II and reached its zenith in the 1970s, when NYC’s poverty, crime, prostitution, and homelessness rates were at an all-time high.
The data reveals that the Asian population in New York City – which includes immigrants from China, India, and Bangladesh – has risen 30% in the last decade. The Hispanic population has grown around 8%, according to city planners.
Borough by borough, Brooklyn has grown the most in the last decade, gaining more than 60,000 residents. This could be in part because those previously living in Manhattan were driven out by staggering price increases or the desire for more space.
Previous population increases have been as a result of a surplus of births in the city. There were also more births than deaths in New York City in 2012, which could have helped the rising numbers of residents.The net influx was the first seen in the city since at least 1950, when the Census Bureau changed its methodology and made it possible to calculate the number of people moving into and out of New York, city officials said.
Michael Bloomberg hailed the city’s population increase to a number of factors, including the general climb in quality of living.
Crime rates are down in post-Giuliani New York, there is a new booming tech sector, and life expectancy is up to 80.9 years for a baby born in the city.
The national average is 78.7 years.
According to the Associated Press, there were several population booms following World War II, but “white flight” in the 1950s led to dramatic urban shifts.
Families looking for space and privacy left the city for the surrounding suburbs of Westchester, Connecticut, and Long Island.
During the 1970s, the alarming trend was at an all-time high, with as much of 10% of the population leaving. The city became derelict and almost went broke; graffiti tags were omnipresent around the city, and large parts of the Bronx were literally on fire.
“We have many indicators of quality of life in the city – record low crime, record high tourism, record high life expectancy, record high graduation rates, record job growth and more – but there’s no better indication of the strength of our city than a record high population and a net population influx,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.
“Generations change, and they change their views on where the good life is,” the mayor said.
