BUFFALO, N.Y. — ​For the first time in 70 years, the city of Buffalo has increased its population.

Mayor Byron Brown says the results of the 2020 U.S. Census are a direct result of policies like increasing affordable housing, lowering taxes and supporting new Americans who move into the area.

“This is the first population growth in Buffalo since the 1950 Census, and it really means that the strategies that we have employed to develop this community, to stabilize this community, to invite newcomers to this community, to build Buffalo, are working,” Brown said.

For decades, Buffalo has been deemed a shrinking city for its decreasing population, but the latest numbers prove that is no longer the case, with Buffalo’s population count now more than 278,000, 17,000 more people than previously estimated.

The census results can also be attributed to an increase in responses, thanks to the work of a lot of partner groups, like the Buffalo branch of the NAACP, which helped destigmatize the Census.

“There was a lot of fear because people thought they would be deported if they would be used in the numbers,” Rev. Mark E. Blue, the president of the NAACP Buffalo branch, said. “They thought a lot of things would happen, but we gave them the truth, and the truth is what makes us who we are.”

Brown says the Census numbers are important in determining federal funding for the city.