WTL WhereToLive.us City comparison lab

Ranking

Large U.S. Cities Losing Population

Large cities in the launch dataset with the steepest population decline since the 2020 estimates base. This ranking is based only on verified population estimates and should be paired with the city-level data roadmap before making relocation decisions.

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City Rank 2025 population 2020 base Growth Signal
St. Louis, Missouri #80 278,144 301,349 -7.70% declining
San Francisco, California #17 826,079 878,550 -5.97% declining
New Orleans, Louisiana #54 362,154 384,129 -5.72% declining
Long Beach, California #44 450,469 466,768 -3.49% stable
Memphis, Tennessee #29 609,647 628,510 -3.00% stable
Toledo, Ohio #88 263,423 270,881 -2.75% stable
Baltimore, Maryland #30 569,997 585,729 -2.69% stable
Milwaukee, Wisconsin #31 562,407 577,894 -2.68% stable
Portland, Oregon #28 635,109 652,466 -2.66% stable
Urban Honolulu CDP, Hawaii #56 341,868 350,993 -2.60% stable
New York, New York #1 8,584,629 8,805,594 -2.51% stable
Cleveland, Ohio #53 363,608 372,635 -2.42% stable
San Jose, California #13 989,814 1,013,321 -2.32% stable
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania #6 1,574,281 1,603,800 -1.84% stable
Anaheim, California #57 341,008 346,799 -1.67% stable
St. Paul, Minnesota #69 306,684 311,503 -1.55% stable
Anchorage, Alaska #76 287,155 291,242 -1.40% stable
Albuquerque, New Mexico #32 556,588 564,428 -1.39% stable
Buffalo, New York #83 274,613 278,301 -1.33% stable
Virginia Beach, Virginia #43 453,737 459,417 -1.24% stable
Boston, Massachusetts #25 672,973 678,617 -0.83% stable
Los Angeles, California #2 3,869,089 3,899,342 -0.78% stable
Omaha, Nebraska #42 488,797 491,867 -0.62% stable
Chicago, Illinois #3 2,731,585 2,748,333 -0.61% stable
Corpus Christi, Texas #64 317,247 318,090 -0.27% stable