This Lehigh Valley place added more people than any in Pennsylvania since 2020, U.S. Census says

The U.S. Census Bureau released annual population estimates for all cities, towns, boroughs and townships this week, including numbers for more than 2,500 places in Pennsylvania.

The new data release is a more granular look at the state compared with the population estimates for counties that were published in mid-March.

Pennsylvania’s overall population has been relatively stagnant since the 2020 Census, but individual towns have been growing or shrinking in dramatic fashion, with some towns gaining or losing a third of their 2020 population. Many towns that lost population during the COVID-19 pandemic have seen slight rebounds, but not all.

Philadelphia lost more than 53,000 people — 3.3% of its population — since 2020, including 16,294 from 2022 to 2023, the latest numbers available. The one-year loss is roughly equal to losing the entire population of Forks Township, Northampton County.

Philadelphia is not alone: half of the nation’s 30 biggest cities lost population since 2020. New York City dropped 546,000 people, more than 10 times Philadelphia’s loss.

Allentown is the only local municipality to be near the top of Pennsylvania’s population loser list, having shed 975 residents, accounting for 0.77% of its population, which now stands at 124,880. The loss is enough to rank it 11th for population declines, but it is about half the population loss experienced by Erie, which ranked second.

On the flip side, Bethlehem gained 2,508 residents since the April 2020 census, more than any of the 2,559 places in the data, according to the new estimates. More than 90% of that growth took place in the Northampton County portion of the city, where 2,338 new residents were recorded, compared with 170 new people in the Lehigh County portion. In total, 58,349 Bethlehem residents are in Northampton County, with the remaining 19,951 in Lehigh.

Bethlehem is the only city in Pennsylvania to span multiple counties, although 11 boroughs do the same.

The change bumps Bethlehem above Scranton to be the state’s seventh most populous place.

The map below shows the three-year change in population for every place in Pennsylvania.

Bethlehem isn’t the only Lehigh Valley municipality to show robust population growth. Upper Macungie Township gained 2,116 people for a total population of 28,492, according to the estimates.

Easton’s 29,538 estimated population includes 1,410 newcomers since 2020, placing it ninth out of 2,559 places. That growth also bumped Easton ahead of Whitehall to reclaim the title of fourth-largest municipality in the Lehigh Valley, behind Allentown, Bethlehem and Lower Macungie Township.

Looking at the population increase just from 2022 to 2023, Upper Macungie and Bethlehem rank fifth and sixth, respectively. Upper Macungie added 628 people year-to-year, while Bethlehem added 614. Upper Saucon and Emmaus also ranked in the top 1% for year-to-year growth.

The current data release does not tell us whether those population shifts were due natural increase (the difference between births and deaths) or people moving to and from other towns, states or countries. That level of detail will follow at the end of the year.

Carbon County is unique in The Morning Call’s eight-county region in having none of its 23 municipalities lose population in the last three years.

The small boroughs of Wind Gap and Tatamy lead the list list of Lehigh Valley gainers when viewed through the lens of percent change, growing 28% and 17%, respectively, since the 2020 census. Thirty-six of the 62 local municipalities grew in population in the last three years, while 26 shrank.

A table of all the numbers for Lehigh Valley towns is at the end of this story.

The following map shows the population winners and losers by percent change rather than number of individuals.