Booming Fort Worth added more new people than any other U.S. city last year
POPULATION REPORT
If it seems like rush hour is getting worse, it's not your imagination. Fort Worth saw the largest numeric population gain of any U.S. city in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's latest findings.
From July 2021 to July 2022, Fort Worth added 19,170 new residents, bringing its total population to 956,709.
Fort Worth is the 13th largest city in the country by population, the bureau says. By comparison, Dallas (population just under 1.3 million) is the ninth largest.
Together, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington ranked No. 4 in the list of the 10 most populous U.S. metro areas (as opposed to the cities, themselves). Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land ranked No. 5.
Texas cities and towns dominated every list in the new Census Bureau report. "Texas was the only state that had more than three cities on both the 15 fastest-growing large cities and towns by numeric change and by percent change lists," the report says.
Fastest-growing cities
Six out of the 15 fastest-growing cities in the United States are in Texas, and with one Dallas suburb - Little Elm - zooming up to No. 5. Little Elm had an 8 percent population increase from July 2021 to July 2022, bringing the city's total population to more than 55,300 residents.
The north Austin suburb of Georgetown had the highest growth rate in the nation, at 14.4 percent, bringing the city's total population to more than 86,500 residents. Surrounding Austin suburbs Kyle and Leander landed in No. 3 and No. 4 with the same population growth rate of 10.9 percent. Two more Texas cities, Conroe and New Braunfels, landed in the top 15.
The top 10 fastest-growing large cities in the U.S. are:
- No. 1 – Georgetown, Texas
- No. 2 – Santa Cruz, California
- No. 3 – Kyle, Texas
- No. 4 – Leander, Texas
- No. 5 – Little Elm, Texas
- No. 6 – Westfield, Indiana
- No. 7 – Queen Creek, Arizona
- No. 8 – North Port, Florida
- No. 9 – Cape Coral, Florida
- No. 10 – Port St. Lucie, Florida
While Fort Worth landed on top of the 15 U.S. cities with the largest numeric population increases, two neighbors also made the list. Dallas and Frisco ranked No. 13 and No. 15, adding 8,833 and 8,506 new residents, respectively.
When it comes to most populous cities overall, Texas takes five of the 15 top spots. In addition to Dallas (No. 9) and Fort Worth (No. 13) Houston came in No. 4 with its population of over 2.3 million, San Antonio at No. 7 with over 1.47 million residents, and Austin, at No. 10 with 974,447 residents.
The top 15 most populous American cities are:
- No. 1 – New York City, New York
- No. 2 – Los Angeles, California
- No. 3 – Chicago, Illinois
- No. 4 – Houston, Texas
- No. 5 – Phoenix, Arizona
- No. 6 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- No. 7 – San Antonio, Texas
- No. 8 – San Diego, California
- No. 9 – Dallas, Texas
- No. 10 – Austin, Texas
- No. 11 - Jacksonville, Florida
- No. 12 - San Jose, California
- No. 13 - Fort Worth, Texas
- No. 14 - Columbus, Ohio
- No. 15 - Charlotte, North Carolina
The report also discovered that housing inventory skyrocketed by 1.6 million units between 2021 and 2022. Texas had the third fastest housing growth with a rate of 2.3 percent, versus Utah, which had the fastest growth at 3.3 percent. Two Texas counties had the highest numeric gains for housing units in the nation: Harris (No. 1) and Travis (No. 3).
The full report can be found on census.gov.