Two Illinois cities, Rockford and Decatur, are among the fastest-shrinking cities in the country, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates, part of an ongoing trend of Midwestern cities losing residents while cities across the Southwest and West continue to grow.
Decatur, in central Illinois about 40 miles east of Springfield, has lost 7.1% of its population since the 2010 census, according to the recently released 2019 population estimates. That drop is the third-largest percentage loss in the U.S. among cities with a population of 50,000 or more. Rockford comes in at No. 15 on that list. The northern Illinois city, the fifth-largest in the state with an estimated 145,609 residents, has lost 5% of its population during that nine-year period.
