San Antonio among cities with fastest declining population in the U.S.

San Antonio is one of four fastest declining Texas cities.

View of the San Antonio skyline from Villa Tranchese in 2019.
Jerry Lara/Staff photographer

MYSA
By Steven Santana
Nov 21, 2023

In past years, the Alamo City has been among the top cities for people to relocate to, especially for California transplants, but a new report ranks San Antonio among cities with the fastest decline in population growth. The new report from Finance Buzz put San Antonio on the list because it saw a 4.80% decline in the population from 2019 to 2022.

San Antonio ranked No. 22 out of 117 cities with an overall decline score of 61.3. The fastest declining city, San Francisco, had a score of 73.9, and the lowest score of 21.8 went to Frisco, which was the fastest growing city on the list. The report pulled data from the U.S. Census Bureau. 

The per capita income for San Antonio declined by 26.5% from 2019 to 2022, according to the list. The house price increased by 7.6% and the amount of vacant housing increased by 9%. Experts in the report attribute population decline to rising cost of living and home prices and COVID changing people's work habits. 

"The level of commitment they make to their commute and the expenditures they are required to make in a high-cost locale,"  said Alexandra Becker Sielaff, associate professor of business at Carroll University, in the report. "Urban sprawl contributes to an increasingly expensive and time-consuming commute"

San Antonio was one of four Texas cities ranked as fastest declining in the U.S., including Corpus Christi, Laredo, and Lubbock.