Bye bye, Big Apple: These are the top 10 US cities millennials are fleeing

Millennials are heading out of big cities.Gotham/Getty Images

• Millennials were already fleeing major cities before the pandemic.
• A recent SmartAsset report tracked the top cities millennials are moving away from.
• New York City, Chicago, and Washington DC all made the list.

Millennials are over big cities.

A recent SmartAsset report looked at the cities millennials are moving away from, and some major hotspots like New York City and Chicago topped the list.

It's worth noting that this data is based on US Census net migration data from 2018 — well before the pandemic. SmartAsset determined its ranking by subtracting the number of people ages 25 to 39 who moved out of each city from the number of people in the same age range who moved into the same city that year to find each city's net migration.

The cities with a negative net migration saw more people leave than move in. Many millennials seem to be trading in major metro areas for more affordable cities in the south and out west.

Keep reading to see the top 10 cities where the millennial population is dropping, ranked in order of ascending net migration.