New Yorkers are abandoning the city’s sluggish buses by the droves — even as the subways experience record ridership and the population keeps growing, officials said Thursday.

Transit experts at a City Council hearing said the MTA’s buses carried more than 1 billion passengers in 2002 but only 906 million last year.

“With over half a million jobs added since 2010, our city is in the midst of a population boom and our transit system is struggling to keep up,” said Tabitha Decker, research director for the Transit Center advocacy group.

“The failure of our bus network is a citywide issue and it’s one that we can and must solve.”

The MTA, which operates 5,725 buses, blamed the nosedive on quicker, nearby subways, as well as slower bus service.

The agency is mulling several plans to speed up bus service, including installing a tap-and-pay system to let customers hop on without dipping MetroCards. The $1 billion project has been eyed for a 2018 launch.