New census data is showing positive trends for the population of New York state.
Leslie Reynolds, a research support specialist with Cornell’s Program on Applied Demographics, describes the new census data as puzzle pieces, painting a picture with information like births, deaths, and net migration.
"You can kind of see all of this at once and pick apart what's driving different areas, what things maybe to focus on, and that could be of interest to policy makers and researchers," Reynolds said.
Reynolds said new data from 2024 is telling a different story than the larger period from 2020-2024. For example, New York state as a whole lost about 1.7 percent of its population since 2020, but gained about .7 percent in 2024.
"All regions, except for the North Country and the Southern Tier, gained population in the past year, and that was different from the whole period, 2020-2024, where only three regions gained population,” she said.
Those three regions that gained population were Long Island, Mid-Hudson, and the Capital Region. On a county basis, Oswego County was the only county in central and northern New York to gain population between 2020-2024.
Amid population concerns in the immediate post-pandemic era, Reynolds said while the numbers could still be revised, this latest information is promising.
"We were happy to see the rebound in the past year, especially with the net migration that all of the regions experienced positive net migration in the past year, so that was really encouraging to us,” she said.
