Pittsburgh population grew by nearly 3,000, census shows
Pittsburgh’s population is on the rise, new estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau revealed.
The city added 2,902 people from 2023 to 2024, bringing the total population to 307,668 — an almost 1% increase, according to census figures.
Chris Briem, regional economist at the University Center for Social & Urban Research at the University of Pittsburgh, said the growth marks the “largest annual gain for the city in a long time.”
Pittsburgh’s population has been “generally flat” for the last 10 to 15 years, according to Briem. The city saw population decline for decades before recent grown, he said.
“The Pittsburgh region is suffering from the largest rate of natural population decline,” he said, meaning there are more deaths than births. “So any gains within the region are more likely to be driven by net migration gains.”
Compared to 2020, as denoted as a comparison on the Census Bureau estimates, Pittsburgh’s population has been steadily increasing.
The numbers include:
- 302,798 in 2020
- 305,427 in 2021
- 303,057 in 2022
- 304,766 in 2023
- 307,668 in 2024
Pittsburgh’s population has remained stable over the last decade, according to TribLive’s previous reporting. Since 2010, Pittsburgh’s population has gone through several years of small growth as well as corresponding years of slight decline.
Allegheny County as a whole also saw an increase across that time frame as well, at about 0.1%, according to the estimates.
The population increased from 1,230,138 in 2023 to 1,231,814 in 2024.
Despite the increase in this year’s report, Allegheny County’s population has decreased significantly overall since its 2020 count of 1,249,671 people.
In Westmoreland County, the population saw an approximately 0.1% decrease this year, according to the estimates.
The county population decreased from 351,420 in 2023 to 350,935 in 2024.
Westmoreland County’s population has been decreasing steadily since 2020, according to the estimates. In 2020, the population was 354,339 people.
From the PA State Data Center on new municipal population estimates out this morning.
As always, a tale of two (sides of) Pennsylvania.
Ref: https://t.co/8WhCMLcTzQ pic.twitter.com/0DWj6hZW95
— ???????????????????? ???????????????????? (@chrisbriem) May 15, 2025
Across Pennsylvania, Philadelphia was the only city to made the top 15 list of the most populous cities in the United States as of July 1, 2024.
At No. 6, Philadelphia is home to 1,573,916 people. New York City holds the number one slot with 8,478,072 people.
Megan Swift is a TribLive reporter covering trending news in Western Pennsylvania. A Murrysville native, she joined the Trib full time in 2023 after serving as editor-in-chief of The Daily Collegian at Penn State. She previously worked as a Jim Borden Scholarship intern at the Trib for three summers. She can be reached at mswift@triblive.com.
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