Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Friday, March 24, 2017.
Chicago lost more people in 2016 than any other metropolitan area in the U.S.
Approximately 19,570 people moved out of the Chicago metropolitan area in 2016, which was the greatest population loss of any metropolitan area in the U.S., according to the Tribune. Chicago was also the only one of the ten largest metropolitan areas to lose residents. It’s the second year in a row that the area has lost more residents than it gained: 11,324 people left in 2015. Cook County also lost more residents than any county in the U.S. in 2016, and experts believe it’s a regional issue: most of the cities losing residents are located in the midwest or the northeast, including Saint Louis and Pittsburgh. “There’s this big regional thing going on,” local demographer Rob Paral told the Tribune. “It’s not about what’s wrong with Chicago—if anything, it’s what’s wrong with the Midwest or the Northeast.” [Tribune] [WBEZ]
