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Americans are returning to cities after remote-work exodus, data shows

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Updated March 30, 2023 at 5:58 p.m. EDT|Published March 30, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
D.C.'s K Street NW during a quiet rush hour early in the pandemic. The city grew by 3,012 people in 2022. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
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The exodus of people fleeing large urban areas during the height of the pandemic appears to be reversing, according to data from the Census Bureau released Thursday.

Many workers who could telecommute abandoned crowded cities and counties for suburban or rural areas when covid struck, causing demographers and businesses to wonder whether the movement signified a permanent shift. But the overall patterns of population change are moving toward pre-pandemic rates, the bureau’s Vintage 2022 estimates of population and components of change show.