Texas suburbs made up half of the country’s 10 fastest growing cities with three cities outside Houston and Dallas topping the list, new census figures show.
Rapid growth in Conroe, Frisco and McKinney made those suburbs the three fastest-growing cities in the country among those with a population larger than 50,000, according to population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Their population growth — counted between July 2015 and July 2016 — outpaced Georgetown and New Braunfels, which topped the list last year.
Located near The Woodlands north of Houston, Conroe grew by 7.8 percent, from 76,362 in 2015 to 82,286 in 2016. Georgetown — north of Austin — ranked fifth on the national list, and New Braunfels — located between San Antonio and Austin — ranked 9th.
Suburbs also made up the list of fastest-growing cities in the state, continuing a years-long trend of explosive suburban population growth.
Unsurprisingly, the state’s biggest cities added the most people in the past year. But a significant drop in Houston’s population growth allowed San Antonio to best the state’s most populous city in gaining the most new residents last year.
Gaining 24,473 residents, San Antonio ranked third among cities across the country that experienced the biggest growth. In fact, it welcomed more new residents in 2016 than New York City, which added 21,171 new residents during the same period.
Houston’s drop in new residents — down to 18,666 from about 40,800 in 2015 — comes in the same year in which Harris County lost a significant amount of residents to other areas, according to Census data released in March.
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- In Texas, suburban counties lead in population growth as they continue to receive residents from other areas while urban counties are more dependent on international migrants and expanding families.
- The youngest Texans appear destined to make the state dramatically more diverse as the white share of population drops. More than two-thirds of Texans under age 19 are non-white.
