Census data shows population growth for parts of St. Charles County; decline for parts of St. Louis County
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - The U.S. Census Bureau has released its 2024 city population estimates.
Data showed St. Louis City led the state in population decline, with Chesterfield, Maryland Heights, and Ballwin also being within the top 10 cities in the state losing residents.
Chesterfield City Administrator Mike Geisel said less kids per household is partially to blame for the drop in population.
“There’s been a suburban flight for a number of years and people always wanna push that edge a little bit further. I think St. Charles County and Warren County and those folks are a little friendlier to development. A little easier to develop. It’s not unexpected. The reality is there is limited development space within St. Louis County,” Geisel said.
Although the population loss from 2020 for Chesterfield is just over 500, Geisel said he’s skeptical of the census data.
“The number of people in a household is going down, but the number of residential units in Chesterfield has increased. Occupancy is steady. It’s not like we have vacant properties out here,” Geisel said.
On the other hand, Kansas City leads Missouri in population growth, while fast-growing St. Charles cities like O’Fallon, St. Peters, and Wentzville rank among the top 10 cities for population gains.
O’Fallon has and continues to be a hotspot for development in the Metro, gaining nearly 4,000 new residents since 2020.
“If we look back 50, 30, 20 years ago, we will have seen O’Fallon as a two-lane Highway K. Now it’s 4 or 5. No stop lights to stop lights. At that time it was a lot of farm land. That land has now become populated with residential growth and retail growth,” Tony Michalka with the city of O’Fallon said.
St. Peters population crossed over 61,000 people.
Since 2020 the city has added more than 2200 multi-family units, which is partially what Lisa Bedian with the city said sets St. Peters apart.
“Can you get a house. Can you get your kids educated. Are there jobs nearby. What are the roads like. Can you depend on things like safe drinking water. We’ve tried to make those smart investments throughout the years here in St. Peters. That’s why we’re attracting new residents but we’re also keeping the ones we have,” Bedian said.
The City of St. Louis saw the largest population loss for the entire state of Missouri. A bright spot for the city is that it’s pulling in younger people, with a younger average population.
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