The North Dakota Towns Losing The Most Residents In 2026

North Dakota is a State on the Grow

According to Visual Capitalist, North Dakota added 20,000 people from 2020 to 2025. Most of our major cities (the 10 biggest) are all gaining residents each year. Especially, Fargo and its suburbs. Even the Capital City of Bismarck continues to grow every year, and its neighbor to the southeast, Lincoln, is the 16th biggest city in the state. I remember a time when Grand Forks was bigger than Bismarck.

But, Not Every Town is growing in North Dakota

I decided to analyze World Population Review's 2026 North Dakota population for each of its 402 towns and specifically, the top 30 biggest cities to identify which of our larger cities are losing residents over the last year. Two cities that are in the Top 10 in population in the state took a couple of signifcant drop when it comes to population. Both of them were recently named in "The 10 Snobbiest/Rudest in the State". Coincidence? Hmmm, well, maybe. You can read more about that below.

(The 10 Snobbiest/Rudest North Dakota Towns for 2026)

A good share of the 10 cities in North Dakota that are losing the most residents are in the oil patch. This is largely due to an economic "boom or bust" cycle that is driven by volatile oil prices. There was a huge crash in the oil market during the pandemic, and this has affected several North Dakota cities.

The 10 North Dakota Cities That Lost the Most Residents

Let's take a look at the North Dakota cities that lost the most people in 2026. You might be surprised by a few of these. Keep in mind, again, we only analyzed the top 30 cities in the state.