Chelsea Is A “Top Destination” In Manhattan Population Boom

In Chelsea, the number of residents has grown since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a population report released by Placer.ai at the start of the new year.

Chelsea (zip code 10001) and the Meatpacking District (zip code 10014) are listed as two of six “top destination neighborhoods” in the report, with 15.2% and 17.6% increases in “domestic net migration,” respectively, from November 2019 to October 2022. The blocks south of Washington Square Park (zip code 10012) saw a single-digit increase. Uptown, by comparison, one Upper West Side neighborhood experienced the biggest boom in the city and numbers deflated on the Upper East Side. Downtown, some neighborhoods (like the area around City Hall) have seen an increase, while the population count in others (like SoHo) has fallen.

In a matter of months at the start of the pandemic, in 2020, 8.1% of Manhattan’s population fled the borough, according to the report. “But over the summer of 2020, the tide began to turn — and by October 2022, Manhattan had more than recovered its pandemic losses,” Bracha Arnold wrote. The borough’s population increased around 4% from January 2018 to October 2022.