This City, Not In CNY, Is New York’s Fastest Growing?

If you're looking for New York State's fastest growing city, you'll need to look outside of the Central New York and Mohawk Valley regions.

Out of 994 towns and cities of data reported by the Census Bureau, the population increased in 191 places, and on the flip side decreased in 796. According to The Empire Center, the fastest-growing locality in New York State since 2020 has been the Orange County town of Palm Tree:

Driven by a high birth rate, the town’s population rose by 8,906 residents, or 27 percent, to a total of 41,857 by 2023. (On the map above, the 1.5-square-mile town is a deep green pinpoint due west of the northern Westchester-Putnam line, too tiny to be discernible on most screens.)"

The runner-up for population growth was the southern Westchester County city of New Rochelle, which added 4,006 residents, the third fastest-growing total population was the town of Ramapo in Rockland County, which had gained 3,928 residents bringing its population to 152,843.

The state’s top 20 gainers and losers, in both total and percentage terms, are shown here:

You can check out an interactive map online here.

So Why A Drop In CNY And Upstate?

Empire Center reports that there is a nationwide trend of "rural region depopulation" happening:

New York’s list of localities with high rates of population decline is dominated by upstate towns hosting state prisons whose inmate counts have been dropping in the wake of state criminal law changes designed to de-emphasize incarceration."

In addition to New York City, all but four of the Empire State’s 20 most populous areas have experienced population decreases including the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers.