The Phoenix metro area was already growing at a rapid pace in the spring of 2020. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and life changed for us all.

Work went remote, school too, and we all found ourselves at home a lot more. And that made a lot of people rethink just where home was.

Now the census is out with new numbers that show just how many people moved around the country during the pandemic — and Phoenix is coming out on top.

In the first full year of the pandemic, census data show the nation’s biggest cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco lost residents in record numbers. While at the same time, Phoenix — alongside Dallas, Houston and Atlanta — saw an influx of people.

Aggie Yellow Horse is a demographer at Arizona State University who studies these trends.

The Show spoke with her to learn about the shifts.

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