ITHACA, NY (607NewsNow) — New population data is out from the Cornell Program on Applied Demographics. 

Researcher Leslie Reynolds tells 607 News Now Tompkins County’s population has seen ups and downs in the last 15 years.

“The Tompkins County population has grown slightly since 2010, but since 2020 it’s declined slightly,” Reynolds said. “And after Census 2020 — when COVID hit — there was a large decline from 2020-21 of about 3,000. A lot of that sad to do with dormitory closures and the way life changed during the pandemic.”

In Cortland County, the population “has declined pretty steadily since 2010,” Reynolds added. “Ranging between -.1 and -.8 percentage loss each year of its population. It did increase slightly in 2024, but fell to 45,850 in 2025.” In 2010, Cortland County’s population was over 49,000, Reynolds said.

Across the Southern Tier, the data showed a population decline of over 2% between 2020 and 2025. You can review the data here.