Immigration Slowdown Hits Every Metro Area in the U.S., Census Shows
Large urban counties and the border were the most affected. And in three-quarters of U.S. counties, population growth either slowed or turned negative.
In the Laredo metro area, on the Texas border, immigration screeched to a virtual standstill.
El Centro, a metro that has historically served as a desert gateway into California, lost more people to other countries than it gained.
In Denver and its suburbs, the net immigration rate fell by almost three-quarters. In the Chicago area, it was slashed by nearly two-thirds.
Every metro area in the United States, in fact, experienced lower immigration rates during the year leading up to July 2025 compared with the previous year, according to new estimates released on Thursday by the Census Bureau.
In about 75 percent of all counties, overall population growth — including immigration, domestic migration, births and deaths — either slowed or turned negative. Only 25 percent grew faster.
And large urban counties and border counties, which had experienced a surge in new arrivals in recent years, were among the hardest-hit parts of the country.
Net immigration fell in every metro area in 2025
The new census estimates offer the most detailed picture yet of the demographic impacts from the immigration restrictions that started late in the Biden administration and have ramped up during the Trump presidency. The previous year brought record levels of immigration.
The census attempts to account for both legal and illegal immigration, as well as deportations and voluntary departures.
The numbers also captured the continuing effect of declining birthrates, as deaths outnumbered births in about two-thirds of U.S. counties. It is a sign that many communities are still struggling to keep their population levels up, even as the impact of Covid-related deaths has waned.
The nation’s overall population still increased last year by 1.8 million people, but the combination of low birthrates and dramatically slowing immigration led to one of the slowest growth rates in U.S. history.
The U.S. census numbers are a measure of the country’s demographic health, and take account of births and deaths as well as immigration, emigration and deportation. The country needs a population of young workers and taxpayers large enough to finance infrastructure like schools, hospitals and health care for older residents. Growth that is too rapid can also present problems, straining resources and pushing up the cost of housing.
Some of the strongest population gains came in suburban counties, especially in the South, which continued to grow rapidly as they attracted people from other parts of the country.
About 18,000 people moved into Pasco County, Fla., a suburban community about 30 miles outside Tampa, enough to increase its population by nearly 2.8 percent.
But for counties along the Mexican border, things looked quite different. In contrast to years when they experienced a surge in immigration, total populations in more than half of these counties dipped in the new estimates.
In Webb County, Texas, which includes Laredo, net international migration dropped by about 95 percent. It gained fewer than 700 people total in the new estimates.
San Diego County in California lost about 5,300 people. Net international migration fell to about 6,100, from about 18,000 in the previous year.
In big metro areas, which have long sustained themselves through immigration, population growth also slowed or declined outright.
Los Angeles, the country’s most populous county, experienced a loss of nearly 54,000 residents. In Miami-Dade County, the population shrank by more than 10,000 people, after growing by over 64,000 residents the year before. New York City also experienced a decline of about 12,200.
Some of those counties lost residents to other parts of the United States, a trend that has been ongoing for years. But immigration was a major driver of the decline. Net international migration across all those urban counties fell to about 932,000 from about two million.
Those new immigrants often required a lot of resources and assistance, said Julia Gelatt, an associate director at the Migration Policy Institute, a research center in Washington. “So some cities,” she added, “might be relieved to have a pause in those people who need initial assistance.”
But, she cautioned, if immigration remains low for too long, it could lead to problems maintaining a population and a work force.
The decline in immigration is expected to continue as the Trump administration moves forward with its efforts to bring down levels of illegal immigration and narrow pathways for legal immigration.
That could spell further trouble for big cities that were already grappling with a steady outflow of residents to the suburbs and rural areas, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. These cities would no longer have immigrants to act as a “demographic cushion” of sorts, he said.
Lower immigration levels would also throw into stark relief America’s growing demographic crisis. Birthrates are falling, and the oldest baby boomers are entering their 80s. If that trend continues, deaths would outpace births, and without immigration, the national population would naturally decline.
Rural counties, which tend to have older populations, recorded nearly 100,000 more deaths than births in the new census estimates. That’s in contrast to nearly all major urban counties, where the number of births has kept the population growing.
Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire, said that normally, the main driver of population growth is people having children. But the decline in birthrate has shown few signs of reversing course.
“Now, it’s immigration fueling much more of the gain,” he said. “So any change in immigration has a huge impact on demographic trends.”
Jeff Adelson is a reporter on The Times’s data journalism team who specializes in using demographic data to explore social trends, population dynamics and the effects of policy.
Amy Qin is a national correspondent for The Times, writing primarily about Asian American communities.