New York, Mar 26 (IANS): The toll of the Covid-19 pandemic was reflected in a natural decrease in 2021 in the population of nearly three-quarters of US counties versus the two previous years, the US Census Bureau has said.

More than 73 per cent of US counties experienced natural decrease, or an excess of deaths over births, up from 55.5 per cent in 2020 and 45.5 per cent in 2019, according to the bureau's data issued on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The biggest loss, of 159,621 residents, was in Los Angeles county in California, and all counties in Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island experienced natural decrease in 2021, said the bureau in its statistics.

The fall continued a trend in which more than half of all US counties lost population over the decade from 2010, with almost all growth taking place in metropolitan areas, census officials was quoted by Reuters as saying in August 2021.

The US population grew at a slower pace in 2021 than any other year on record as the Covid-19 pandemic worsened the more subdued growth of recent years, according to the bureau.