Washington ? Battered by recession, more older Americans are staying put in traditional big cities to hold onto jobs, creating slowdowns in population growth at once-popular retirement destinations widely found in the South and West.

Census estimates released Tuesday capture the impact of the housing downturn and economic recession, including the critical period after the financial meltdown in late 2008, on the nation’s counties and metropolitan areas.

The population figures show that annual growth of retirement-destination counties slipped from 3.1 percent between 2000 and 2007, to 1.7 percent between 2007 and 2009, despite the large cohort of baby boomers who are reaching retirement age.

In all, 126 of the 440 retirement counties — those that attract large numbers of people 60 and older — lost population during the recession, many of them in Sunbelt areas such as Florida, Arizona, New Mexico and California. In Florida, 33 of its 43 retirement counties grew more slowly, while seven others, led by Daytona Beach in Volusia County, lost population.