As people magnets, Dutchess and Putnam counties are not doing well. But they are doing better than most other counties in New York state.
Putnam County had a population of 98,060 on July 1, 2023, 0.3 percent less than a year earlier, the Census Bureau estimates in newly released data. Dutchess County had 297,150 residents on July 1, a drop of 0.2 percent.
Each of the two counties still have more people — amounting to just 0.4 percent more for each of them — than they posted in the 2020 census, which reported figures for May 1 of that year. Statewide, only 17 of the 62 counties have grown since the census.
The state had 19,571,216 residents on July 1, 2023, a decline of more than half a million people, or 2.7 percent, from the census. Â
The losses were most acute in the counties closest to New York City. Each of the five boroughs of the city — which are counted as separate counties — lost people. So did Nassau and Westchester counties, the suburban counties that border the city.Â
Suffolk County, on eastern Long Island, and the other five Hudson River counties closest to the city, showed gains.
The New York-Newark Metro Area, the nation’s largest, lost 2.9 percent of its population since the census. The second and third-largest areas, anchored by Los Angeles and Chicago, also lost population. All of the other top 10 — based in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Washington, Philadelphia, Miami and Phoenix, had gains.
The statistics showing a drop in the population of Dutchess County over the past year are hard to believe as traffic has at least tripled in Beacon and nearly all real estate has been bought up. Where are all these cars coming from and going to? [via Facebook]