Large Southern Cities Lead Nation in Population GrowthTexas Continues to Top the Charts With Fastest-Growing Cities MAY 18, 2023 — Nine of the nation’s 15 fastest-growing cities were in the South, according to Vintage 2022 Population Estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Of the nine fastest-growing cities in the South, six were in Texas. New estimates for metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas and for housing units at the national, state and county levels were also released today. “Georgetown, Texas, remained the fastest-growing city by percent change in 2022, with the highest rate of growth among all U.S. cities and towns with at least 50,000 people. It wasn’t the only city to retain its distinction over the year, however,” said Crystal Delbé, a statistician in the Census Bureau’s Population Division. “New York remained the nation’s largest city, despite its recent population decline. At 8.3 million, its population was more than twice that of the next largest city, Los Angeles, with a population of nearly 4 million.” Following the population increase of 14.4% in Georgetown, Texas, was Santa Cruz, California, with a 12.5% increase, adding roughly 7,000 people to its population. The next three fastest-growing cities were also in Texas — Kyle, Leander, and Little Elm. Many cities at the core of large U.S. metropolitan areas were no longer among the largest population losers in 2022, reversing a pattern seen during the first full year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Today’s release of Vintage 2022 population estimates for cities and towns shows that the magnitude of population loss for some large cities decreased between 2021 and 2022. About half of the nation’s fastest-growing cities just over a year into the pandemic (July 1, 2021) remained among the top-15 gainers one year later (July 1, 2022), growing at an even faster rate. |