The recession, which officially ended in 2009, affected New York City’s population dynamic in two ways. People who might have left the city didn’t, in part because they couldn’t sell their homes or weren’t lured to jobs elsewhere. Also, the influx of foreigners from abroad slowed.
But with the recession over, the city is now faring well on both counts, new data from the Census Bureau suggests.
The net outflow to other areas generally remains lower than it was before the recession began in 2007. At the same time, immigration has surged to nearly 10-year highs.
In 2011, the city gained about 67,000 immigrants, less than the annual increase during the 1990s, but more than at any time since before the recession began in 2007. The city lost fewer people to domestic migration, about 56,000, than in any year in decades.
People in their 20s and 30s “have not gone to the Florida areas and are showing lower gains in Texas,†said William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution. “They are also are less likely to leave standard out-migration areas like New York and Los Angeles compared with the years during the recession.â€
“In other words, they are being more cautious,†he said.
