For years, a host of Southern cities represented the fastest growth nationwide as people relocated for sunny weather, beaches, jobs and a lower cost of living. The latest population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau released this week confirms the trend continues. Nine of the 15 fastest-growing cities lie within the Southern region.
And though ‘everything may be bigger in Texas’ may be considered a cliche, in this case it’s true. Six of those 15 fastest-growing cities are within Texas borders. Georgetown remained the fastest growing by percent change last year at 14.4% to reach a total population of 86,507. It also has the highest rate of growth among all U.S. cities and towns that have at least 50,000 people, according to Crystal Delbe, a statistician in the Census Bureau’s Population Division.
The other fastest-growing Texas cities include Leander with a 10.9% change and population of 74,375, Kyle also with a 10.9% change and population of 57,470, Little Elm at an 8% change and population of 55,357, Conroe City at a 6.3% change and total of 101,405 and New Braunfels at 5.7% change and 104,707.
Santa Cruz in California ranked second, after Georgetown, in fastest-growing cities. It had a 12.5% increase that added 7,000 residents.
Where Population Wins
But being the fastest-growing city doesn’t mean having the largest population. The same report revealed that New York City holds that title with 8.3 million residents, despite a recent decline. No. 2 is Los Angeles, which is slightly less than half New York’s population with almost 4 million residents. The other three in the top-five list include Chicago with 2.7 million, Houston with 2.3 million and Phoenix with 1.6 million. Beside Chicago, the only other Midwestern city that made the top 15 group is Columbus with 907,971, slightly more populated than Charlotte, which ranked 15th with 897,720.
Don’t Rule Out Smaller Towns
Though 40% of the country’s population lived in 798 cities with populations of 50,000 or more, others prefer having more space and greenery and fewer residents nearby, a trend evidenced during Covid-19 as many fled dense urban cores. But there wasn’t an even distribution of population to small towns everywhere. The two most popular areas to migrate to were out West, which experienced the larger growth between 2021 and 2022 with an increase of 0.5%, and the South where these small towns grew 0.4%.
How Housing Meets Demand
The good news is that housing stock grew by 1.6 million units in the year between July 2021 and July 2022 to total 143.8 million, which also represented a slight increase from the prior year. California gained the largest number of units, followed by Texas and then Florida. Utah experienced the fastest growth with inventory in its Wasatch County increasing by 7.7% between July 1, 2021, and July 1, 2022. That county includes Heber City, Midway and Daniel. Also seeing a good surge was Jasper County in South Carolina and Teton County in Idaho. Wyoming and Alaska had the fewest new units.
