Russell Weaver

Director of Research, ILR Buffalo Co-Lab

 Russell Weaver is an economic geographer and director of research at the Cornell ILR Buffalo Co-Lab.

Weaver says: 

 

"The NYC region lost substantial population, nearly all through domestic outmigration. Nearly all of the population loss in the NYC area was concentrated in the New York-Jersey City-White Plains metro.

 

"The Buffalo region, by contrast, lost only a few thousand residents – but almost none of that net loss was due to outmigration. Rather, it was natual population change (with deaths exceeding births). The pandemic arguably had something to do with that latter result. Buffalo-Niagara had a net loss of 3,170 residents; and there have been roughly 3,800 COVID-19 deaths in the region since March 2020

 

"Regions that saw meaningful in-migration included Albany-Schenectady, Kingston, and Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown.

 

"Population in the Nassau County-Suffolk County metro barely changed (net loss of 826 residents).

 

"Population losses in the Rochester and Syracuse regions were more pronounced than losses in the Buffalo region because both Rochester and Syracuse experienced relatively high outmigration (compared to Buffalo), in addition to natural population loss (which is mostly what affected Buffalo).

 

Jan Vink

Demographer

Jan Vink represents New York State in the US Census Bureau's Federal-State Cooperatives for Population Estimates and Projections and leads PAD's role as a Coordinating Agency in the New York State Data Center. He can speak on the effect the pandemic had on county populations, both from a positive and negative aspect.