Subscribe by Email

  RSS

Fastest Growing U.S. Cities 2008

07.01.2009

The U.S. Census Bureau today released July 2008 population estimates for U.S. cities. Here are the top ten fastest growing cities (in numeric change) between July 2007 and July 2008. Change is noted in parentheses:

1. New York (53,498)

2. Phoenix (33,184)

3. Houston (33,063)

4. Los Angeles (26,969)

5. San Antonio (25,645)

6. Fort Worth (24,413)

7. New Orleans (23,740)

8. Chicago (20,606)

9. Austin (18,461)

10. San Diego (18,424)

Most of these cities were among the top ten fastest growing places in 2006-2007 as well. Notable exceptions were Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Diego, which all moved up more than 30 spots from the previous year. You can also see the data catching up to the housing bust and recession in this latest release. Charlotte, for example, slipped from eighth in 2006-2007 to eleventh in 2007-2008. Raleigh went from tenth to fifteenth, and North Las Vegas fell all the way from eleventh to thirty-seventh.

Here are a few other random facts:

Between 2000 and 2008, nine cities gained more than 100,000 residents: New York, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Raleigh.

New Orleans is back up to 69 percent of its pre-Katrina population.

Twenty-six cities in Texas have at least doubled in population since 2000. Forty-one cities are growing at least ten percent per year.