100 U.S. Cities that Have Lost the Most People

Can you name the 100 cities in the U.S which have lost the most people since they reached their peak population?

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Based on 2025 estimates

Only including population losses attested by census estimates.

Excludes census-designated places.

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Last updated: May 20, 2026

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First submitted	December 3, 2024
Times taken	15,803
Average score	43.0%
Rating	4.60

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Loss	%	Peak	State	City
-1,200,473	64.9%	1950	MI	Detroit
-889,377	24.6%	1950	IL	Chicago
-578,652	67.5%	1950	MO	St. Louis
-551,200	60.3%	1950	OH	Cleveland
-497,324	24.0%	1950	PA	Philadelphia
-379,711	40.0%	1950	MD	Baltimore
-369,174	54.5%	1950	PA	Pittsburgh
-305,519	52.7%	1950	NY	Buffalo
-265,371	42.3%	1960	LA	New Orleans
-220,965	2.5%	2020	NY	New York City
-189,631	37.6%	1950	OH	Cincinnati
-178,917	24.1%	1960	WI	Milwaukee
-144,994	42.5%	1960	AL	Birmingham
-128,471	16.0%	1950	MA	Boston
-126,380	38.0%	1950	NY	Rochester
-125,644	47.9%	1960	OH	Dayton
-120,395	31.4%	1970	OH	Toledo
-118,529	26.8%	1930	NJ	Newark
-117,634	59.7%	1960	MI	Flint
-111,170	65.4%	1930	OH	Youngstown
-111,031	62.3%	1960	IN	Gary
-108,533	13.5%	1950	--	Washington
-100,660	34.7%	1960	OH	Akron
-91,394	17.5%	1950	MN	Minneapolis
-76,938	25.0%	1970	VA	Norfolk
-75,687	34.3%	1950	NY	Syracuse
-67,919	47.4%	1930	PA	Scranton
-64,684	78.5%	1950	IL	East St. Louis
-61,699	30.4%	1980	MS	Jackson
-58,194	23.0%	1940	RI	Providence
-55,416	31.2%	1950	CT	Hartford
-55,402	56.4%	1960	MI	Saginaw
-55,139	53.8%	1960	NY	Niagara Falls
-53,125	42.7%	1950	NJ	Camden
-52,471	6.0%	2020	CA	San Francisco
-49,673	73.8%	1920	PA	Johnstown
-47,911	41.0%	1950	OH	Canton
-46,602	33.7%	1960	PA	Erie
-44,711	84.4%	1930	MI	Highland Park
-42,103	48.6%	1930	PA	Wilkes-Barre
-41,538	48.1%	1950	WV	Huntington
-40,453	6.2%	2000	TN	Memphis
-39,707	48.4%	1930	PA	Altoona
-39,679	46.2%	1960	WV	Charleston
-39,022	43.6%	1950	PA	Harrisburg
-38,992	34.7%	1940	DE	Wilmington
-38,762	38.1%	1930	NY	Utica
-38,448	69.4%	1940	PA	McKeesport
-36,503	28.5%	1950	NJ	Trenton
-35,986	32.2%	1960	IN	Hammond

Loss	%	Peak	State	City
-35,979	58.4%	1930	WV	Wheeling
-34,256	42.5%	1950	NY	Binghamton
-33,297	24.7%	1950	NY	Albany
-32,059	55.6%	1960	IN	East Chicago
-32,043	48.5%	1950	PA	Chester
-31,978	31.1%	1900	MO	St. Joseph
-31,087	15.0%	1980	LA	Shreveport
-30,253	0.8%	2020	CA	Los Angeles
-30,221	34.3%	1970	MI	St. Clair Shores
-29,789	8.0%	2000	HI	Honolulu
-29,244	22.1%	1960	IN	South Bend
-29,007	51.6%	1930	MI	Hamtramck
-28,655	33.2%	1970	MI	Royal Oak
-28,547	60.3%	1960	AL	Prichard
-27,659	56.6%	1950	PA	New Castle
-27,411	41.4%	1930	NJ	Atlantic City
-26,818	67.0%	1950	OH	East Cleveland
-26,221	27.4%	1930	NY	Schenectady
-26,055	27.7%	1980	IL	Decatur
-25,901	33.7%	1910	NY	Troy
-25,669	15.6%	1950	CT	New Haven
-25,367	17.9%	1960	IN	Evansville
-25,278	59.4%	1930	OH	Portsmouth
-25,187	20.9%	1920	MA	Fall River
-25,166	39.6%	1970	OH	Warren
-24,721	42.6%	1960	AL	Gadsden
-24,442	29.5%	1960	OH	Springfield
-24,165	43.8%	1930	MI	Jackson
-23,627	47.5%	1950	NY	Elmira
-23,590	33.0%	1970	OH	Euclid
-23,405	35.9%	1930	KY	Covington
-23,202	27.2%	1970	MI	Pontiac
-22,798	48.5%	1960	RI	Newport
-22,391	6.6%	2000	CA	Santa Ana
-22,180	36.8%	1920	MA	Holyoke
-21,736	40.5%	1960	MI	Bay City
-21,652	84.0%	1910	PA	Shenandoah
-21,635	21.6%	1970	OH	Parma
-21,482	30.5%	1930	OH	Lakewood
-20,684	52.4%	1940	MD	Cumberland
-19,964	38.7%	1960	NY	Rome
-19,761	11.3%	1960	MA	Springfield
-19,729	52.4%	1940	OH	Steubenville
-19,697	19.0%	1930	MA	Somerville
-19,447	44.7%	1960	MI	Wyandotte
-19,383	16.0%	1920	MA	New Bedford
-19,232	92.1%	1920	PA	Braddock
-19,176	33.4%	1970	AR	Pine Bluff
-19,039	35.4%	1970	OH	Lima
-18,982	17.7%	1960	MN	Duluth

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31 Comments

Level 56

Dec 3, 2024

Some things to note:

- This was all calculated manually and it might be possible that a city or two are missing, but this is otherwise a very complete list.

- St. Joseph's 1900 peak is disputed.

Level 37

Dec 4, 2024

Detroit has been dying but their NFL team is still going strong

+14

Level 70

Dec 11, 2024

Our population actually grew in 2023 for the first time since the 1950s (albeit by only about 2,000 residents). There's been a lot of new development and business growth over the last decade and, in 2023, we had the lowest number of homicides in the last 30-40 years. Still a long way to go (and we're never getting back to peak population) but the trend is up!

Also, the Lions are amazing and Dan Campbell is a demigod.

Level 63

Dec 11, 2024

Many of these are rebounding

I wonder if Altoona is higher in the stats cuz of what occured

Level 69

Dec 15, 2024

Minnesota should be abbreviated as MN, not ME.

Level 56

Dec 16, 2024

This has been fixed.

Level 83

Dec 23, 2024

Congrats on the feature! What I learned from this Quiz is that Portland is not on the sea, a fact I've probably learned before and forgotten.

Level 56

Dec 23, 2024

Thanks!

Level 94

Dec 23, 2024

I figured Shenandoah, Pennsylvania was a coal boomtown, but I had to look it up because I wasn't familiar with it. It just barely hit the threshold for this quiz.

Level 98

Dec 28, 2024

Citrus Heights, California was only incorporated in 1997, so the peak population may be an artifact of some change in borders with incorporation.

Level 85

Jan 6, 2025

I was wondering about this, too, and I think you're right. Here's a map showing the boundaries of the Citrus Heights CDP from 1990: https://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/trt1990/st06_California/06067_Sacramento/90T06067_001.pdf

If you compare that to the current city map, you can see that there are meaningful portions in the southeast and southwest that are now part of Orangevale, Fair Oaks, or Carmichael: http://www.citrusheights.net/DocumentCenter/View/1656/City-of-Citrus-Heights-Map-PDF

But even setting aside the boundary change, it seems to me that Citrus Heights shouldn't be in a quiz about cities and towns for a time period before it was incorporated as a city. Otherwise, great quiz.

Level 56

Jan 7, 2025

Thanks! Fair point, Citrus Heights will be removed in the next update, which will be around the time the 2024 estimates release later this year.

Level 55

Jan 28, 2025

Isn’t Pottsville, Pennsylvania also qualified for this list?

Level 56

Jan 28, 2025

Pretty far from it, actually. -11,175 since peak in 1940.

Level 47

Jan 30, 2025

Chicago has high property taxes and a rising cost of living. Many residents move to states with lower taxes and more affordable housing, like Texas, Florida, or Tennessee.

And of course, the city has struggled with violent crime, particularly in certain neighborhoods.

Level 89

Jun 3, 2025

A crazy stat that was true a few years ago (it may be better or worse now) was that 30% of the tax revenue the State of Illinois took in went to pension and health care for retired state workers (many of whom are now in Florida or Arizona). It's hard to fix the budget with that albatross around your neck.

Level 73

Jan 30, 2025

I feel that you shouldn't give out East Chicago, East St. Louis, and East Cleveland for free. East Chicago is not even in the same state as Chicago, and ditto with East St. Louis.

Level 53

Feb 4, 2025

Didn’t Deadwood City South Dakota used to have like 25-40k people back in the 1800’s and now it has like 2k people or something like that? I don’t know the specific demographics/numbers but that one might be worth looking into.

Level 56

Feb 4, 2025

While perhaps it did, it does become problematic when there's no official figure reported for it until the 1880 census (which recorded 3,777 inhabitants), shortly after its alleged 25,000 peak in 1876. The issue is that these numbers aren't very dependable when they're just rough estimates.

Another one city that has this same issue is Butte, Montana where a population of 100,000 was alleged around the 1920s, compared to the 2023 estimate of 35,701.

Level 93

Jun 3, 2025

I guess this is the reason for the neutral colored dot on the map near Deadwood.

Level 81

Mar 23, 2025

While I don't doubt that New York is shrinking, or at least will eventually, I know before the 2020 Census the prediction for New York's population is that the city's population was declining and could even be lower than the 2010 Census... but it wasn't lower than 2010 and was pretty significantly higher than the estimates. I don't know if the estimates were wrong or thought it started shrinking before it actually did but for a long time New York's immigration and birth rate has outpaced people leaving the city

Level 81

Jun 3, 2025

Really cool quiz! Consider accepting just 'DC'?

Level 56

Jun 3, 2025

Thanks! Probably forgot to add this back, lol.

Level 88

Jun 3, 2025

Thanks to Paul Simon for teaching me about Saginaw.

Level ∞

Jun 3, 2025

Too many people hitchhiking FROM Saginaw, not enough people hitchhiking TO Saginaw.

Level 57

Jun 10, 2025

The area I'm from rarely shows up in quizes, and when it does it's in ones like this. Really quite sad how so much of rural America has declined in the past century.

Level 67

Jul 2, 2025

I assume Cairo IL and Anniston AL both barely missed the cut to be on this list

Level ∞

Jul 2, 2025

Cairo, Illinois peaked at 15,203 people in 1920.

So even if they lost 100% of their people, it wouldn't be enough to make the list.

And they've "only" lost 90% of their people.

I think it might be interesting to visit some day. Modern-day ghost town vibes.

Level 49

Jul 17, 2025

Interesting quiz, very imformative!

However, I think a better criteria would be "percentage of population lost," instead of "nominal population lost." For example, Los Angeles doesn't really feel like it belongs. Yes it did lose a lot of people, but it's a tiny % of the population of 4 million.

Level 90

Feb 10, 2026

Sure, but how many tiny, insignificant towns lost all 100 of their residents, so they would have a 100% decline. It would be hard to make that work. At least here, you get a reasonable list of cities that most Americans at least would recognize by name.

Level 81

Mar 25, 2026

even just a name change would greatly benefit some of these towns. "east st. louis", for instance; how uninspiring is that name? any city that's just the name of another, larger one with a cardinal direction tacked on should really be revised, but something about east st. louis in particular feels grim

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