Census Journey to Work Data
Summary for New York City Metropolitan Area

Many people mistakenly believe New York City has lost residents and jobs to the suburbs between 1970 and 1990. While NYC's share of the regional population/jobs has shrank by about 6 percentage points, the number of people living or working in the city has increased by over 3%. Basically, growth in the suburbs has outpaced the city itself.

A decade by decade look at the city/suburban percentage change, though, produces a more tumultuous picture. Between 1970 and 1980, New York City lost 9% of its residents and 7% of its jobs, knocking down its regional share of each by over 5 percentage points. This atrophy was ameliorated during the 1980's by 11% growth, but that expansion was not enough to regain its share of the region's jobs or population.

From 1980 to 1990, both the city and suburbs had residential and employment growth around 12%, except for NYC's suburbs in New York State, where employment increased by 20%.

The one constant amongst both decades is the location of strongest workplace growth, the suburban portions of NYS, where growth was over 20% each decade. Total expansion from 1970 to 1990 in this subregion was 45%.

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