San Antonio gained more in population in 2017 than any other city in the entire USA, according to Census Bureau figures released early Thursday and obtained by 1200 WOAI news.
San Antonio gained 24,000 new residents in 2017, which pushes the city's population over 1.5 million for the first time ever.
“San Antonio, Texas, tops the list with the largest population gain with an increase of over 24,200 people – an average of 66 people per day between 2016 and 2017,” said Amel Toukabri, a demographer in the Population Division of the Census Bureau. “That’s a growth rate of 1.6 percent. This growth was enough to push San Antonio's population above the 1.5 million mark.”
That doesn't mean 24,000 people moved here in 2017, although most of the population gain was through new arrivals. It also includes natural growth, an excess of births over deaths, which is higher in San Antonio than in many other cities because San Antonio's population is younger than the national average.
Seven of the 15 fastest growing cities in the USA last year were in Texas, as the astounding rate of growth that the state has seen over the past two decades continues.
Dallas gained 18,900 new residents last year, while Ft. Worth gained 18,700. That gain was enough to push Ft. Worth ahead of Indianapolis to become the 15th largest city in the USA.
San Antonio remains the nation's seventh largest city, but this growth combined with Philadelphia's shrinking population, makes it possible that San Antonio could surpass Philly in the 2020 Census to become the 6th largest.
That is population growth in raw numbers. When you look at population growth by percentage, New Braunfels is the second fastest growing city by percentage in the USA, showing an 8% growth last year, to reach a population of just under 80,000.
Frisco, near Dallas, was the fastest growing.
Pflugerville, McKinney, Georgetown, and Flower Mound are also among the Texas cities on the last of the fastest growing cities in the USA by percentage increase in 2017.