50 Metros Americans Are Leaving in the Rear View Mirror

Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, and Los Angeles had some of the biggest net population declines due to domestic migration between 2010 and 2017, according to a new study.

William Frey, demographer at the nonprofit public policy research group the Brookings Institution, says that these cities are losing residents is attributable to climate, telling USA Today, "the story of the broader migration pattern in the U.S. is from Snow Belt to Sun Belt. That migration has slowed a little bit in the early part of the decade, when we were still dealing with the aftermath of the recession, but it's coming back.”

Each year, roughly 40 million Americans, or about 14 percent of the U.S. population, move at least once. Much of that movement includes younger people relocating within cities, but it is trends of Americans moving to warmer climates, more affordable areas, and better job opportunities that have largely determined migration patterns in recent decades.

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