Texas Dominates Big-City America
News Release No. 5, November 2006
By Bryan Pope

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Everything is bigger in Texas, including the cities. At least that is according to recent U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates. Three Texas cities made the bureau’s list of the country’s top ten most populated metros for 2005.

Houston ranked fourth with a population of more than two million, San Antonio came in seventh with almost 1.3 million, and Dallas placed ninth with more than 1.2 million.

“The post-2000 period has clearly turned into a time of rapid growth for Texas cities, particularly its large and suburban cities,” said Dr. Steve Murdock, state demographer and research fellow with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

Not only does Texas have some of the largest cities, but it has some of the fastest-growing. From 2000 to 2005, Texas was the only state to have more than one city among the fastest-growing in America, and it had four. San Antonio, up more than 105,000 since 2000, ranked fourth; Fort Worth, up 82,700, ranked fifth; Houston, up nearly 60,000, ranked seventh; and El Paso, up nearly 35,000, ranked tenth.

Only Los Angeles (up 150,300 to 3.8 million), Phoenix (up nearly 140,000 to 1.5 million) and New York (up more than 134,500 to 8.1 million) added more new residents than San Antonio and Fort Worth.

For 2000–05 population growth by percentage, Texas again had four cities in the top ten. Fort Worth ranked first with a 15.3 percent increase. San Antonio ranked fourth at 9.1 percent, El Paso ranked seventh at 6.2 percent and Austin was tenth at 4.6 percent.

In fact, of the more than 1,200 Texas cities and towns covered in the Census Bureau’s 2005 report, 70 percent showed growth in the previous five years, with some smaller towns boasting especially impressive numbers. Hutto had a 492 percent growth between 2000 and 2005, while Dallas-area Fate and Little Elm grew by 406 and 365 percent, respectively.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Wichita Falls population dropped by nearly 4,400. Beaumont was next with a decrease of almost 1,900, followed by Pecos with 1,250.

For more on Texas growth, read “Big State, Big Cities, Big Growth” in the October issue of Tierra Grande magazine, the Real Estate Center’s quarterly journal.

For more information about U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates, visit website.

The Real Estate Center has been providing solutions through research for 35 years. Funded primarily by Texas real estate licensee fees, the Center was created by the state legislature to meet the needs of many audiences, including the real estate industry, instructors, researchers and the general public.

Source: Real Estate Center at Texas A&M