(Bloomberg) -- New York City lost almost 78,000 residents last year, bringing the total decline to more than half a million since April 2020, even as the pace of the exodus since the pandemic slows, US Census data shows.

By comparison, New York lost a cumulative total of 126,000 residents in 2022. 

In the 12 months ended July 1, about 160,000 people left the city, while about 52,000 arrived through international migration, bringing the population to around 8.3 million when births and deaths are included, the data shows. In the previous 12-month period, roughly 216,000 people left the city, while 54,037 arrived through international migration. 

The city has lost a net total of 546,164 residents since April 2020, despite a surge of new international arrivals. The Census figures run only through July 2023, so they don’t capture the past nine months of international arrivals.

The population loss highlights the challenges New York still faces roughly four years after the Covid-19 pandemic first paralyzed America’s largest city, killing thousands of residents and spurring many to flee to the suburbs or other states. 

Manhattan, which gained 2,908 people, was the only borough whose population grew. Brooklyn, the city’s most populous borough, lost 28,306 residents, Queens shrank by 26,362, the Bronx fell by 25,332 and Staten Island declined by 671, the data shows.

Earlier this week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams tallied the total number of migrants who’ve come to the city since the spring of 2022 at 182,000 people. Some of those arrivals have since left the city or exited the city’s shelter system, but Adams administration officials said some 64,800 migrants were still in the city’s care as of last week.

The city, which is currently spending an average of $387 per day to care for each migrant household, anticipates the cost to provide for migrants in city shelters will reach roughly $10 billion through the end of the next fiscal year.

City officials said they believe the Census Bureau undercounted the number of new arrivals and said the city will challenge the estimates. 

“This July 2023 estimate does not fully account for changes in this population,” New York Department of City Planning spokesperson Casey Berkovitz said in a statement. “The city’s population was essentially unchanged between July 2022 and 2023, and we will be working with the Census Bureau to adjust the estimate.”

(Updates with city’s plans to challenge Census Bureau in penultimate paragraph.)

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