After two decades of regaining some of its residents, Philadelphia is once again seeing its population shrink, writes Sandy Smith for Philadelphia Magazine.

After a five-decade-long population slide, the city gained 8,456 residents from 2000 to 2010. In the next decade, Philadelphia added 77,791 to that number.

However, the growth curve has reversed in the past few years. Since 2020, the city has lost over 53,000 residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. This means that a significant part of the gains made since 2000 had been erased over the last four years.

This is in line with every other city in the Northeast as well as seven of the largest cities in the nation, all of which have lost population since 2020.

The main reason for the population loss has been the pandemic. Philadelphia lost more than half of those 53,000 residents who have left the city in the past four years from 2020 to 2021.

“There’s been a tendency for people to move away from states like Pennsylvania, New York, and Illinois,” said Emilio Parrado, professor of sociology and director of the Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Such losses were usually compensated for by immigration, but that has not been the case due to both the pandemic and current immigration laws.

Read more about the city’s declining population in Philadelphia Magazine.

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