(The Center Square) – Charlotte is one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities, according to a new U.S. Census report.
Between July 2022 to July 2023, the city gained 15,607 people, reaching a population of 911,311. That is third-highest growth in the U.S. trailing only San Antonio and Fort Worth, Texas, the study found.
Charlotte also ranked 15th nationally in city populations.
Raleigh made the list of fastest growing cities, gaining 8,872 people, the report said. That put its population at 482,295, 10th on the list of the top 15 fastest growing cities.
Overall, the South continued to be the fastest growing region in the nation, the Census Bureau said.
“The population growth across the South in 2023 was driven by significant numeric and percentage gains among its cities,” Crystal Delbé, a Census Bureau statistician, said in a statement. “Thirteen of the 15 fastest-growing cities were in the South, with eight in Texas alone.”
In the Northeast and Midwest, larger cities eked out small gains, reversing a decline in 2022. In the Northeast, cities with populations of 50,000 or more increased by an average of 0.2% in 2023 with Midwestern cities growing by 0.1%, the Census bureau said.
The report confirms the continuation of a long-term population trend in the United States, said Stefan Rayer, Population Program Director of the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research.
“The general pattern we have seen for many years – widespread growth in the South and West, and slower growth or population declines in many areas of the Midwest and Northeast – continues,” he told The Center Square. “But this latest release also illuminates the varying demographic fortunes of individual cities and towns, which can be quite different from the larger regional trends.”
For example, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis and San Francisco all showed growth in the most recent report.
“While these turnarounds don’t yet make up for the larger losses of the previous two years, they are a positive sign,” Rayer said.
The numbers also show growth in suburban and exurban areas of the South and West, which are often in unincorporated areas of their counties, Rayer said.
For example, Celina, Texas, near Dallas grew by 26.6%, more than 53 times that of the nation’s growth rate of 0.5%, the Census said.
However, growth in Georgetown, Texas, slowed by more than a fourth from its 2022 population growth in 2022 of 14.4%. It grew 10.6% in 2023, the Census said.
