MySa.com doing it best at poor journalism - San Antonio is shrinking (Dallas: transplants, new home)

[rynetwo]

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

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.

That seems hard to do when the numbers look like this:

2020 census - 1,434,625
2022 estimate - 1,472,909


The U.S. Census Bureau ranks San Antonio as nation's third-fastest growing city.

With a 2021-to-2022 population increase of 18,889, the Alamo City ranked just behind Phoenix and Fort Worth, respectively, according to Census' number crunching

[ged_782]

Analyzing the Finance Buzz methodology for determining what constitutes "decline", it is apparent they used a formula that took into account population change, but included other elements, like new home construction, percent of vacant houses, home price changes, new businesses, per-capita income, unemployment rate, among other criteria. So a city could have an increasing population, but other factors suggest an overall decline, from more of an economic standpoint.

Also not clear is whether they are looking at the metropolitan area, or strictly what is contained within city limits.

[Azure110]

I didn't read the article but did they mean the growth rate itself is declining? I mean we can still be growing but the growth rate may be going down. The wording from the quote in the first post is weird to me.

[rynetwo]

Originally Posted by Azure110

I didn't read the article but did they mean the growth rate itself is declining? I mean we can still be growing but the growth rate may be going down. The wording from the quote in the first post is weird to me.

It referenced growth rate then said the population fell. Maybe it is just a poor article all the way around.

[Azure110]

Originally Posted by rynetwo

It referenced growth rate then said the population fell. Maybe it is just a poor article all the way around.

I finally read it and agree 100%

[malcorub16]

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.

It is a poorly written click bate summarization of the financebuzz.com study. I thought they were referring to San Francisco as Frisco since since some people refer colloquially to SF as "Frisco" and that they were saying it was the largest decline and fastest growing at the same time. They should've at least made the effort to write Frisco, Texas since it is the lesser known of the two.

Originally Posted by ged_782

Analyzing the Finance Buzz methodology for determining what constitutes "decline", it is apparent they used a formula that took into account population change, but included other elements, like new home construction, percent of vacant houses, home price changes, new businesses, per-capita income, unemployment rate, among other criteria. So a city could have an increasing population, but other factors suggest an overall decline, from more of an economic standpoint.
.

Yes, all those weighted factors went into the overall rank on the list, but if one looks at the table they provide the column called Population change (2019-2022), it literally says the population decreased by -4.80% over this period which many of us find hard to believe. Every other source I've seen says the complete opposite. The table also says Dallas decreased in population by -3.28%.

CHAT GPT - Yes, according to the data you provided, San Antonio's population change from 2019 to 2022 was recorded as -4.80%. This suggests a decline in population during that period.

Even Chat GPT agrees the table provided suggests the population declined during that period which I disagree with. Their cited source for population is https://data.census.gov/.

[Azure110]

Originally Posted by Azure110

I finally read it and agree 100%

Wanted to clarify that I agree with rynetwo that it is a poor article.

[KathrynAragon]

Are they talking about within the city limits or a metro area?

[WVNomad]

Well, if it matters, we are moving in January. We’ve been in SA for 3 years…we liked it, but it just never “stuck” as a place we would call home. Not a bad town though…I can see why people like it here, and would be drawn to the area. The declining population seems contrary to what I understood was happening.

[01Snake]

Originally Posted by WVNomad

Well, if it matters, we are moving in January. We’ve been in SA for 3 years…we liked it, but it just never “stuck” as a place we would call home. Not a bad town though…I can see why people like it here, and would be drawn to the area. The declining population seems contrary to what I understood was happening.

Where to next?