While some urban counties are bouncing back from a pandemic-driven exodus, Cook County’s population has yet to recover its losses, according to U.S. census data released Thursday.
Cook County remains the second largest county in the U.S. at 5.1 million residents, but its population fell by more than 68,000 residents last year, the second biggest decline among all counties. Los Angeles County, the nation’s largest, lost nearly 91,000 residents.
Chicago’s home county remains 3% below its pre-pandemic population of nearly 5.3 million, according to the July 2022 census population estimates.
That bucks a broader trend of urban population rebounds as COVID-19 cases decline and pandemic restrictions ease.
“The migration and growth patterns for counties edged closer to pre-pandemic levels this year,” Christine Hartley, assistant division chief for estimates and projections in the Census Bureau’s population division, said in a news release. “Some of the urban counties in New York and San Francisco that saw significant domestic outmigration and population decline in 2021 had population growth in 2022.”
The fastest-growing counties were in the South and West, and 9 of the 10 were in metropolitan areas.
Topping the list in population gains was Maricopa County, Arizona, home to Phoenix, which added nearly 57,000 residents last year. Harris County, Texas, where Houston is the county seat, was second with an increase of nearly 46,000, according to the census data.
New York County, home to Manhattan, snapped back from a decline of nearly 99,000 in 2021 to gain more than 17,000 residents last year.
The fast-growing county in the U.S. was Whitman County, Washington, home to Washington State University, which recovered from a 9.6% drop in 2021 to grow by 10.1% last year. Whitman County, which has a population of about 48,000, reflects a nationwide trend of many smaller college counties rebounding from a downturn in activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the census.
While Cook County has yet to reverse its pandemic losses, the population has been essentially flat since 2010, when it had about 5.2 million residents. The county’s largest recent increase was between 2019 and 2020, rising 2.3% to nearly 5.3 million before the pandemic hit, according to census data.
