NYC Got Bigger Last Year; 1st Time in Decades

New statistics show more people moved into New York City than out of it last year for the first time in more than 60 years.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday cheered the reversal as a sign of the city’s quality of life.

“There’s no better indication of the strength of our city than a record high population and a net population influx,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “People are voting with their feet.”

The finding comes from new census estimates that put the city’s population at a record high of 8.3 million.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the city’s population has grown by more than 161,500 people since 2010. The increase is also due to a growing gap between births and deaths as life expectancy increases.

While each of the five boroughs registered population gains, the largest percentage change occurred in Brooklyn, where the population grew by 2.4 percent or 60,900 people.

Many major American cities’ populations began to shrink as suburbs grew after World War II.

This article appeared in print on page 5 of the March 15th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.