Houston boasts No. 2 biggest population gain in U.S., Census data shows
Boomtown
Houston saw the second-highest population increase in the United States in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The new population report revealed Houston gained 43,217 residents from July 2023 to July 2024, bringing the city's population to 2,390,125.
Houston hung on to its ranking as the fourth largest city in the country and joined 11 other Southern cities that saw the largest numeric population gains in 2024, the report added.
Elsewhere in Texas, Fort Worth is now home to more than 1 million residents, surpassing Austin as the 11th largest city in the U.S. Fort Worth had the fifth-highest numeric increase in population, adding 23,442 residents during that same time frame to bring the city's total population to 1,008,106 residents.
Dallas retained its No. 9 spot on the list of the 15 most populous cities in the U.S. The city gained more than 23,000 residents during the one-year period, bringing its population to 1,326,087 people in 2024.
Austin slipped two spots and now ranks as the 13th largest city after adding more than 13,000 residents to bring the Texas Capital's population to 993,588.
San Antonio gained 23,945 residents — the fourth-highest increase nationwide — and was the only other city besides Houston to have a higher numerical growth rate than Fort Worth during the one-year period.
Fastest-growing U.S. cities
Princeton, a North Texas suburb of Dallas, topped the charts as the No. 1 fastest-growing U.S. city in 2024. The Census Bureau says the city's population has more than doubled in the last five years to more than 37,000 residents.
Fulshear, 34 miles from downtown Houston, has continued its rapid expansion as the second-fastest growing city. The suburb grew nearly 27 percent since the previous year, and its population rose to 54,629 residents as of July 2024.
Five additional Texas cities made the list of fastest-growing U.S. cities:
- Celina, near Dallas (No. 4) with 18.2 percent growth (51,661 total population)
- Anna, near Dallas (No. 5) with 14.6 percent growth (31,986 total population)
- Fate, near Dallas (No. 8) with 11.4 percent growth (27,467 total population)
- Melissa, near Dallas (No. 11) with 10 percent growth (26,194 total population)
- Hutto, near Austin (No. 13) with 9.4 percent growth (42,661 total population)
The Austin suburb of Georgetown's growth has continued to slow down since 2023, and it no longer appears in the list of fastest-growing cities. However, it did surpass 100,000 residents in 2024. San Angelo, a small city in West Texas, also surpassed the 100,000-population threshold.
Most populous U.S. cities in 2024
New York City maintained its stronghold as the biggest in America in 2024, boasting a population of nearly 8.5 million residents. Los Angeles and Chicago also retained second and third place, with respective populations of nearly 3.88 million and more than 2.7 million residents.
"Cities in the Northeast that had experienced population declines in 2023 are now experiencing significant population growth, on average," said Crystal Delbé, a statistician in the Census Bureau’s Population Division. "In fact, cities of all sizes, in all regions, showed faster growth and larger gains than in 2023, except for small cities in the South, whose average population growth rate remained the same."
The 15 populous U.S. cities as of July 1, 2024 were:
- No. 1 – New York, New York (8.48 million)
- No. 2 – Los Angeles, California (3.88 million)
- No. 3 – Chicago, Illinois (2.72 million)
- No. 4 – Houston, Texas (2.39 million)
- No. 5 – Phoenix, Arizona (1.67 million)
- No. 6 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1.57 million)
- No. 7 – San Antonio, Texas (1.53 million)
- No. 8 – San Diego, California (1.4 million)
- No. 9 – Dallas, Texas (1.33 million)
- No. 10 – Jacksonville, Florida (1 million)
- No. 11 – Fort Worth, Texas (1 million)
- No. 12 – San Jose, California (997,368)
- No. 13 – Austin, Texas (993,588)
- No. 14 – Charlotte, North Carolina (943,476)
- No. 15 – Columbus, Ohio (933,263)
A version of this article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.