Newsroom Archive

Texas had eight of the 15 most rapidly growing large cities between Census Day (April 1, 2010) and July 1, 2011, according to population estimates for all of the nation's incorporated cities and towns and minor civil divisions released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

“These estimates provide our first look at how much the total population has changed in each of our nation's cities since we conducted the 2010 Census,” Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said. “These numbers provide further evidence of a continuation of the trend of rapid population growth in Texas we observed between the 2000 and 2010 censuses.”

Although Texas dominated the list as a whole, the fastest-growing large city was outside the state. Among cities with populations of 100,000 or more since 2010, New Orleans, still rebounding from the effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, ranked first, growing by 4.9 percent to 360,740. This puts the city's population at 79.2 percent of the pre-Katrina July 1, 2005, estimate of 455,188.

One of Texas cities that made the list of fastest-growing cities — Round Rock — broke the 100,000 mark since the 2010 Census. Another, nearby Austin, cracked the 800,000 mark. (See Table 1 for complete list.)

Looking at the highest numerical growth, New York topped the list, adding nearly 70,000 people since the 2010 Census. Again, Texas was well-represented, with six cities among the top 15, including Houston, San Antonio and Austin, which ranked second, third and fourth, respectively. California checked in with three cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose; Phoenix; Denver; Charlotte, N.C.; New Orleans; and Washington also made the list. (See Table 2 for a complete list.)

New York continued to be the nation's most populous city by a large margin, with 8.2 million residents in 2011, followed by Los Angeles and Chicago. The 15 most populous cities remained unchanged since the 2010 Census. However, Austin, Texas, moved up from 14th to 13th in total population, supplanting San Francisco. (See Table 3 for complete list.)

Other highlights:

• As of July 1, 2011, more than three in every five people living in the United States (62 percent or 194.4 million people) lived in incorporated places, commonly thought of as cities. More than a third of the nation's population (37 percent or 116.2 million people) lived in cities with populations of more than 50,000.
• Overall, the population in cities grew by 1.0 percent across the nation between 2010 and 2011. However, large cities (285) tended to grow faster than the national rate at 1.3 percent. Large cities in the South (99 places) showed the largest growth at 1.8 percent, followed by those in the West (113 places) at 1.4 percent. Large cities in the Northeast (25 places) grew by 0.7 percent and the 48 large places in the Midwest grew by 0.6 percent.
• Of the 19,516 incorporated places in the United States, 715 had populations of 50,000 or more. Nine cities crossed the 50,000 mark since the 2010 Census, including two in Texas (DeSoto and Cedar Park with populations of 50,045 and 51,283, respectively) and the newly incorporated city of Eastvale in Riverside County, Calif., with a population of 54,930. No cities with populations of 50,000 or more in the 2010 Census dropped below the 50,000 mark.

For more information about the geographic areas for which the Census Bureau produces population estimates, see <https://www.census.gov/popest/about/geo-topics.html>.

These estimates are produced using housing unit estimates to distribute the county population to subcounty areas within the county. The 2011 housing unit estimates are projections of average monthly housing unit change based on the Intercensal Estimates time series.