Many large metro areas are facing population stagnation or even decline. Not only are they losing population to smaller cities, but the steady stream of immigrants that had kept them growing has greatly diminished, according to new Census Bureau data.
The 56 metropolitan areas with more than a million residents received nearly a million immigrants in the 12 months ending June 2025. That’s down from more than 2 million the year prior.
Meanwhile, the same counties lost more than 400,000 people to domestic migration, slightly up from the year before and nearly 2.6 million over five years.
The immigrant population has declined over the past year due to the Trump administration’s strict immigration enforcement. However, the Census Bureau data covers less than six months of the new policies and does not reflect their full impact….