The drop came despite a much-vaunted surge of people fleeing cities to the bush.

In comparison, Tamworth grew by 0.4 per cent between 2020 and 2021, according to the last Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures released this week.

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Tamworth grew faster than the state average of 0.3 per cent.

But population growth was actually lower than the city's 20 year average of 0.78 per cent population growth per year.

Sydney shrank during the initial 2020 COVID-19 crisis.

Business NSW Regional Manager Joe Townsend said the region's growth prospects had been hurt during the pandemic by a closure of international borders.

With borders reopening in 2022 and foreign workers returning to Australian shores, the city should grow too, he said.

"For us here in the New England, we used to get around about 600 foreign migrants net movements come into the region," he said.

"Our population was always growing through that avenue and that's decreased.

"With international borders opening up, hopefully we can see some of those more skilled migrants and skilled visas and the like come back into the region, which will help."

Armidale wasn't alone in seeing its population numbers going backwards, with many communities around the region remaining stagnant.

Inverell and Tenterfield, Moree and Narrabri and Quirindi all had population decreases and the federal electorate of New England actually shrank overall, with net internal migration slightly negative.

An estimated 29,484 people lived in the Armidale region on June 30 2021, according to the ABS.

Rural flight was a real phenomenon, according to the ABS stats, with Greater Sydney shrinking by about 0.1 per cent while the rest of NSW grew by 1 per cent. Melbourne shrank even faster, down 1.2 per cent, with rural Victoria growing by 1 per cent.

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