What the 10 fastest-shrinking cities say about America

Axios analysis of Census estimates found over 600 incorporated places with populations of 20,000 or more lost residents between April 2020 and July 2025. The fastest-declining cities include majority-Black communities in the Deep South, working-class Mexican American and Native American cities in the Southwest, and legacy industrial towns in the Midwest. Big Spring, Texas, recorded the steepest percentage drop at 15.3% since 2020, falling from 15,000 to about 12,700. Greenville, Mississippi, fell 10.6% from 29,690 to 26,530, while Gallup, New Mexico, lost 8.8% of residents. Big Spring’s decline followed the 2021 closure of two privately operated federal detention centers, eliminating several hundred jobs, and its Permian Basin fortunes remain tied to West Texas oil volatility. Mississippi has three cities in the top 10 fastest-declining list—Greenville, Vicksburg, and Jackson—each facing chronic underinvestment, high poverty, deteriorating infrastructure, and outmigration of younger residents to metro areas. Despite millions of new housing units since 2020, construction is concentrated in booming metros in the South and Mountain West rather than shrinking communities.

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