Washington, D.C.–Eight of the 15 cities or towns with the largest population gains were located in the South in 2017, with three of the top five in Texas, according to new population estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
“San Antonio, Texas, tops the list with the largest population gain with an increase of over 24,200 people – an average of 66 people per day between 2016 and 2017,” said Amel Toukabri, a demographer in the Population Division of the Census Bureau. “That’s a growth rate of 1.6 percent. This growth was enough to push San Antonio’s population above the 1.5 million mark.”
Some of the other cities with the largest population gains were Phoenix, Ariz. (24,000); Dallas, Texas (18,900); Fort Worth, Texas (18,700); Los Angeles, Calif. (18,600); Seattle, Washington (17,500); and Charlotte, N.C. (15,600).
Regarding percentage change in population, 10 of the 15 fastest-growing large cities were located in the South, with seven in Texas. Between 2016 and 2017, Frisco, Texas (near Dallas), was the fastest-growing large city (population of 50,000 or more) at 8.2 percent, making its growth rate more than 11 times faster than the nation’s growth rate of 0.7 percent.
Fort Worth, Texas, surpassed Indianapolis, Ind., becoming the 15th largest city in the United States with a population of 874,168. Indianapolis has a population of 863,002.
While the main focus of this release has been on the 3.9 percent of cities with populations of 50,000 or more, the United States is a nation of small towns. Of the nation’s 325.7 million people, an estimated 205.0 million (62.9 percent) live within an incorporated place as of July 1, 2017. Of approximately 19,500 incorporated places, about 76 percent had fewer than 5,000 people and nearly 50 percent had fewer than 1,000 people.
The West had the highest share of its population living within an incorporated place (76.7 percent), followed by the Midwest (71.4 percent) as of July 1, 2017. The Northeast had the smallest population of its residents living in incorporated places (51.4 percent).
The South had the most city dwellers of any region at 67.9 million. However, this accounted for only 54.9 percent of the South’s 123.7 million total population. Since the 2010 Census, large cities in the South and West have led the nation in population growth, with an average increase of 10.0 percent (16,206) and 7.8 percent (12,256), respectively. By comparison, those in the Northeast and Midwest grew on average by 2.2 percent (9,104) and 3.0 percent (3,942), respectively.
