New York recorded the largest estimated one-year population loss among U.S. cities, decreasing by 12,196 residents from July 2024 to July 2025. Memphis ranked second with a loss of 4,575, followed by Los Angeles with 3,621.
This ranking answers a narrow but useful question: which incorporated cities lost the greatest number of residents in the newest Census estimates? It does not rank economic health, housing value, quality of life, or the percentage pace of decline.
The ten largest estimated city population losses
New York’s numeric loss was more than twice Memphis’s, yet its percentage change rounded to only −0.1% because the city has more than 8.5 million residents. Escondido lost far fewer people but posted the largest percentage decline within this numeric top ten.
Why numeric loss and percentage decline tell different stories
The one-year table should not be read as a permanent direction. Population estimates are revised, and a city can lose residents in one period and gain them later. The figures also do not identify why people left. Housing, work, family, education, military moves, disasters, and boundary changes require separate evidence.
What to check before moving to or from a declining city
A citywide estimate is a starting point, not a neighborhood description. New York, Los Angeles, and the other cities in the table contain very different local housing and job markets. Visit the likely neighborhoods, test the daily commute, and speak with local employers or service providers before committing to a lease or purchase.
Population loss is information—not a verdict
The Axios reference article succeeds because it puts the number, its significance, and a counterpoint close together. Moveline uses that reader-first structure while keeping this article’s one-year numeric ranking separate from Axios’s longer 2020–2025 percentage analysis.
Moveline’s agent network is responsible for more than one million U.S. moves each year. Its current internal research also covers about 1.6 million moving records from July 2025 through July 2026. That experience supports an address-level check: the practical moving decision still depends on the household, job, housing, access, date, and written moving prices.
For scale, compare these losses with the largest U.S. cities and the largest population gains from the same Census release.
