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Population growth in America’s cities has slowed and some of the biggest drops are in southern border communities as immigration has declined in the first months of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to new estimates from the Census Bureau.
The center said the average growth rate for metro areas fell to 0.6% in 2025 from 1.1% a year earlier, reflecting a broader decline in immigration after immigrants helped fuel cities in 2024, the last year of President Joe Biden’s open-border policies.
“That pattern suggests a sharp rise and fall effect in border counties, where immigration plays a more significant role in year-to-year population change,” Texas Demographic Center interim director Helen You told the Associated Press.
Metro areas along the US-Mexico border have declined significantly as the number of immigrants has declined, including Laredo, Texas; Yuma, Arizona; and El Centro, California. Major immigration hubs have also seen significant declines. Miami-Dade County, Harris County in Texas and Los Angeles County all took in significantly fewer immigrants last year.
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Laredo, Texas, saw its growth rate drop from 3.2% to 0.2%. Yuma, Arizona, fell from 3.3% to 1.4%, and El Centro, California, fell from a 1.2% increase to a 0.7% decline.
The ups and downs have gone beyond the border. Major immigration areas, including Miami-Dade County, Harris County, Texas, and Los Angeles County, all recorded the lowest levels of immigration in 2025. The Census Bureau said nine out of 10 US states took in fewer immigrants than last year.
Census Bureau data covers the year ending in July 2025.
Demographers said the change is important because immigration has become a major driver of population growth in an aging country with a low birth rate. In many large metropolitan areas, it now plays a major role in determining whether people move up or down.
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“After four years in which millions and millions of aliens poured across our borders without restriction and care, we now have the strongest and most secure border in American history,” Trump praised in his State of the Union address.
“In the last nine months, illegal people have been brought into the United States. But we will always allow people to come in legally, people who will love our country and will work hard to keep our country.”
The storms also reshaped migration patterns. Florida’s Gulf Coast counties lost residents after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, while Pinellas County displaced nearly 12,000 people. Taylor County in Florida’s Big Bend posted the highest county growth rate decline in the nation, with a 2.2% decline.
But the storm’s migration wasn’t limited to Florida. In the Blue Ridge Mountains, the home state of Asheville, North Carolina, has more than 2,000 residents who left months after the remnants of Helene destroyed homes and cut power and communications to mountain towns.
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The Biden administration’s much-criticized response has been a central issue in the 2024 presidential election cycle, and will be raised again in 2026 in the key battleground state of North Carolina.
Former Gov. Roy Cooper is facing former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley in a high-profile Senate race that could help decide the GOP’s 53-47 majority in Trump’s last two terms.
“Roy Cooper’s efforts to deal with Hurricane Helene were a disaster that left an estimated $53 billion in damage to businesses, homes, and infrastructure and killed more than 100 people,” said National Republican Senate Committee Press Secretary Nick Puglia. “North Carolinians deserve a senator they can trust to show up when it matters, but Gov. Roy Cooper has failed and failed North Carolina families time and time again when they needed him the most.”
Despite the decline, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth led the country in total population from the largest red state in the US, followed by the battleground cities of Atlanta, Phoenix and Charlotte. Several mid-sized cities in Florida and South Carolina posted the fastest growth rates, led by Ocala, Florida, at 3.4%.
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It was followed by: metro Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, which has become a retirement destination; Spartanburg, South Carolina; Lakeland, Florida, which is between the largest municipalities of Tampa and Orlando; and Punta Gorda, Florida, about 35 miles (56.3 km) north of Fort Myers.
New York’s metro area drops from the largest population growth in 2024 to number 13 in 2025 due to declining immigration.
However, being born in the New York City area allowed it to receive more than 32,000 residents. The New York metropolitan area led the nation in organic growth, or births outnumbered deaths, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston metros.
“With small natural increases, migration determines whether an area grows or shrinks, especially in large metropolitan areas that are often out of homes and dependent on inflows,” University of New Hampshire senior statistician Kenneth Johnson told the AP.
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President Donald Trump has not backed down on his secure border and mass deportation forces, despite criticism from the leftist media, Democrat obstruction and legislation. (Mark Schifelbein/AP Photo)
The largest municipalities where deaths exceeded birth rates were Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and several Florida communities with large populations of adults – Sarasota, Daytona Beach and the Tampa metro area.
Two Texas municipalities top the charts for natural growth because of their age structure and the fact that they have more people than anywhere else in the US, You said.
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“Decades of immigration in this country and other countries have produced young people, with a large number of residents of reproductive age, and a very small number of elderly people,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
