Denton is located in Denton County, Texas about 40 miles northwest of Dallas. It's the 12th largest city in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex which stretches over 13 counties and has a combined population of 7.5 million. While Denton isn't a very large city, it draws in more than twice its population every year for festivals like the North Texas State Fair and Rodeo.
Population Growth
The opening of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in 1974, in addition to the city's growing status within the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex in the decade previously, saw an increase from 27,000 in 1960 to 40,000. The second-largest leap in population came in the 1980s, with a growth of an additional 18,000 people, culminating in a population of 66,000 in 1990.
None of this compares, however, to Denton’s largest decade of growth: the 2000s. Denton has seen rapid growth in recent years, along with the majority of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and has become the country’s seventh fastest growing city. In the year 2000, the population sat at 80,000. By 2010, this had skyrocketed to 117,000: an increase of 36,000 people, or a percentage increase of more than 45%.
Denton is expected to grow faster than ever in the years to come thanks to greater sensitivity to the needs of developers and a shorter permitting process. There are now two master-planned communities proposed that would add 15,000 new homes to the city, increasing residential properties by nearly 50% (https://www.bisnow.com/dallas-ft-worth/news/economic-development/denton-county-poised-for-major-residental-growth-with-commercial-following-those-rooftops-97372).
