There are now more than 1.56 million people living in the city. The city saw an increase of more than 10,500 people in a year.
The numbers come from a new Census estimate. It's not the gold standard Census count, but it's enough to make experts optimistic because, for the first time since 2020, the city saw a population increase.
"That's up by .7% over 2023," said Katie Martin of the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts. "Population growth shows more people are choosing Philadelphia as their home."
The new numbers are the reversal of a population dip that started during the pandemic. Philadelphia's population dropped by nearly 11,000 people in 2021 and by more than 19,000 in 2022. There was some rebound in 2023, with a loss of about 7,000 people. But in 2024, there was a population increase of nearly 10,600 people in the city.
"We tend to expect growth to be about four-tenths of a percent per year. And this last year was eight-tenths of a percent, so that's double, double what we typically forecast," said Brett Fusco with Delaware Valley Planning Commission.
Greg Diebold, who is a planning data analyst with Delaware Valley Planning Commission, says the increase could be indicative of a recovery from the pandemic.
"We see this as representing a return to how our region was growing before the pandemic," he said.
The growth was partly due to people moving to the city from other countries.
"Migration can account for just over half of this increase," said Diebold.
The other half of the increase is attributed to what's known as natural population growth. It looks at the number of births compared to the number of deaths.
In 2024, births outpaced deaths at a higher rate than they did during the pandemic.
"During the pandemic we saw a real increase in the number of deaths happening in the city," said Martin.
The city of Philadelphia wasn't the only area to see growth in the population. The five-county Philadelphia metro area also had a population increase of 1% over last year. That increase was .7% since 2020.
The entire Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro area also saw an increase. Its population increased .8% since 2023-2024 and 1.4% since 2020.
But even with the population increase, Philadelphia still hasn't reached its pre-pandemic population, meaning there's still room for even more growth.
"It's hard to say if it's a trend or just a one-year blip," said Fusco. "We really need more data."
The 6abc data team also analyzed the numbers to see which neighborhoods are growing the most. Northern Liberties accounted for 25% of new housing units in the city.
Experts say there will likely be some adjustments to the numbers when the next full census count happens in 2030.