Population Growth Trends in Maine Cities and Towns (2024-2025)

On Thursday, May 14, 2026, the U.S. Census Bureau released population estimates for cities and towns as of July 1, 2025. National, state, and county housing unit estimates were released as well.

National and Northeast Trends

As the county estimates showed, growth in 2025 slowed in the country’s largest cities with some large cities seeing population declines. Cities with populations of 250,000 or more grew just 0.3% on average this year, compared to 0.9% last year. Meanwhile, medium sized cities (population 5,000 – 49,999) grew 0.7% in 2025, much closer to last year’s average growth of 1.0%. Several factors including reduced population gains from net international migration, additional housing units in midsized cities, and domestic migration trends explain some of the differences in average growth by city size.

In the Northeast, cities with populations of 50,000 or more grew 0.2% on average, while small towns with fewer than 5,000 people declined by 0.2%. Boston and New York City both lost population in 2025. Cities of all sizes grew fastest in the South, which had 10 of the country’s 15 fastest growing cities and 11 of the top 12 cities in terms of numerical gain.

Maine Towns and Cities

In Maine, percentage growth in the population was highest in southern cities and towns, but some very small communities in other parts of the state – like Penobscot County – also saw high percentage growth, as shown in Figure 1. Of the 17 Maine cities and towns with 5,000 or more people that grew by at least 1% during the year, 6 were in Cumberland County and 4 were in York County. Many of the towns that declined the most by percentage were very small communities, most losing just one resident during the year.

Larger cities and towns, mostly in the southern part of the state, added the highest number of residents in 2025 as illustrated in Figure 2. Half of the top ten towns by numerical change were in Cumberland County. The 32 Maine towns that declined by more than 10 people in 2025 are spread across 12 counties, with the highest number in Aroostook (8), followed by Kennebec (5), see Figure 3 (Map).

Portland remains the largest city in Maine, with 69,568 people and nearly twice the size of the next-largest city, Lewiston, as detailed in Figure 4. The top 10 ranking of towns by population did not change in 2025.

More details can be found in the tables and figures below. The data can be downloaded in various formats, and the map is interactive (Figure 3).

Note tables and map were created by Maine's Office of the State Economist.