Big cities experience rebound in population

WASHINGTON (AP) — Reversing a decade-long trend, many of America’s largest cities are now growing more quickly than the rest of the nation, yet another sign of an economic crisis that is making it harder for people to move.

Census data released today highlight a city resurgence in coastal regions and areas of the Midwest and Northeast, due to a housing crunch, recession and higher gas prices that have slowed migration to far-flung suburbs and residential hot spots in the South and West.

The 2008 population figures show New York and Chicago made gains from higher births, while Philadelphia stanched population losses from earlier in the decade. Also showing rebounds were industrial centers in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn.; Columbus, Ohio; and Lincoln, Neb., with economies focused on finance, health care, information technology or education. Detroit, with its ailing auto industry, declined.

Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Ore., all on the West Coast, registered growth, boosted partly by foreign-born immigrants who moved into and stayed in gateway cities. In contrast, former hot-spot areas in Nevada and Arizona had significant slowdowns, as well as inland regions in California.

“Cities are showing a continued vitality as hubs of activity even as some suburban and exurban areas go through tough times,” said William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. “It emphasizes the buoyancy of large established cities with diverse economies and populations.”

Frey and other demographers said many of the population shifts could be longer-lasting. They noted that although the Sunbelt region is still growing, it is unlikely to return to the torrid growth rates of earlier in the decade before the housing bubble burst.