Is the Population Growing, or Shrinking, in Capital Region, NY Counties?
Every year, people pack up their lives, and hit the road to move to a new place.
Sometimes, it's as simple as moving down the street, or moving to a neighboring town. Other times, however, life necessitates a move that takes a family further away. When the latter happens, the move will often take you across state lines.
Many people move to New York every year, but an equally large amount of people move out of the Empire State in that same period of time. So, the question becomes: which of those two groups has been larger than the other in past years?
For answers to this question, I turned to statistical database built in to New York State's official website. Within the database, the state breaks down population estimates by county from each year, since 1970. I highlighted those figures from the 11 counties in the Capital Region, and looked at the years 2020 and 2021.
As it turned out, each county's population totals tell a different story.
From 2020 to 2021, the state of New York saw a decrease in population, one that was actually fairly significant. A handful of counties in the Capital Region saw similar declines, some more severe than others. Other counties, meanwhile, saw their populations increase over the past year.
The totals paint an interesting picture, giving you a general idea of which counties are most desirable to live in when choosing to move to the Capital Region. With that said, here are the population trends from each county in the region from 2020 to 2021, and the amount of people that came, or went, in one calendar year.