More people stay in NYC than leave, as population hits record high

For the first time in at least 60 years, more people moved to New York City in 2012 than left it, swelling the city’s estimated population to an all-time high of 8,336,697, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Thursday.

All five of the city’s boroughs gained residents, Bloomberg said, using the latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Some 12,200 more people moved into the city than left, with most of the migration coming from abroad.

Previous population increases have been as a result of a surplus of births in the city. There were also more births than deaths in New York City in 2012.

The net influx was the first seen in the city since at least 1950, when the Census Bureau changed its methodology and made it possible to calculate the number of people moving into and out of New York, city officials said.

The city’s population in 2012 increased by 2 percent from the 8,175,133 people recorded in the 2010 census. However, the city disputed those numbers, saying they were an underestimate. The city’s appeal to the Census Bureau was unsuccessful.

“For the first time since before 1950, more people are coming to New York City than leaving…We have many indicators of quality of life in the city – record low crime, record high tourism, record high life expectancy, record high graduation rates, record job growth and more – but 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.”

Bloomberg’s pres conference announcing these numbers:

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Todd Eastham)