Big City Slowdown

Between 2010 and 2018, the population of the nation's 775 largest cities (incorporated places with populations of 50,000 or more in 2018) grew by an average of 7.5 percent. The remainder of the United States grew by a smaller 5.8 percent. Growth is fastest for cities with populations of 500,000 to 1 million (such as Austin, San Francisco, Denver, and Boston), their populations growing by nearly 10 percent between 2010 and 2018. Growth is slowest in the nation's largest cities—those with populations of 1 million or more—with a gain of just 5.9 percent between 2010 and 2018.

City population growth 2010-2018 by city size
1 million or more: 5.9%
500,000 to 999,999: 9.6%
250,000 to 499,999: 8.0%
200,000 to 249,999: 6.2%
150,000 to 199,999: 7.3%
100,000 to 149,999: 7.5%
50,000 to 99,999: 7.6%

Among all cities with populations of 50,000 or more, the annual growth rate since 2010 has slowed from about 1.0 percent per year to a smaller 0.6 percent between 2017 and 2018. The biggest slowdown has occurred in cities with populations of 1 million or more. The annual growth rate of the largest cities fell from a peak of 1.11 percent in 2011–12 to just 0.12 percent in 2017–18. Three of these cities—New York, Chicago, and San Jose—experienced small population declines between 2017 and 2018. 

Source: Census Bureau, Fastest-Growing Cities Primarily in the South and West