Americans are still ditching New York and L.A. at alarming rates, but Miami’s on the list now, too

Six years after the pandemic reshaped the American map, the exodus from the nation’s largest coastal cities has not only persisted but also evolved to include a former boomtown. According to a January 2026 report from the Bank of America Institute, Americans are continuing to leave New York City and Los Angeles in droves, but they are now fleeing Miami at equally alarming rates.

Data from the fourth quarter of 2025 reveals that Miami and Los Angeles topped the list of major U.S. cities suffering the largest population losses in absolute terms; they also had the largest population losses year over year. While the early 2020s saw Florida serve as a primary refuge for remote workers, the tide is turning for its main hub, with Miami recording the steepest year-over-year percentage drop in population among major metropolitan areas tracked by the bank.

Miami’s outgoing mayor, Francis Suarez, told Fortune in October that he was concerned about the likely (and now confirmed) election of Zohran Mamdani in New York City, and yet he also acknowledged that there was “definitely a gentrification happening” in his city. Two months later, affordability concerns played a key role in Miami electing its first Democratic mayor in nearly 30 years, Eileen Higgins. Miami curre...