Fastest Growing Cities in the United States 2024

According to the US Census Bureau, approximately 80% of the U.S. population lives in urban areas. 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a number expected to grow to 68% by 2050. Cities everywhere are growing rapidly.

The increase in population in urban areas can be attributed to better economic opportunity and education. Big cities have larger job markets, better pay, and higher individual wealth. Additionally, schools in cities are more likely to have a higher number of qualified teachers, enjoy greater responsibility for resource allocation, and have higher student-to-teacher ratios, all of which are associated with better performance among students.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the ten cities that have the largest numeric increase in population from July 1, 2017, to July 1, 2018, are:

1. Phoenix, AZ
2. San Antonio, TX
3. Fort Worth, TX
4. Seattle, WA
5. Charlotte, NC
6. Austin, TX
7. Jacksonville, FL
8. San Diego, CA
9. Denver, CO
10. Frisco, TX

According to this data, Phoenix is the fastest-growing city in the United States for this period of one year. Phoenix increased by 25,288 people, making a total population of 1,660,272. All of the other cities on this list had population growth numbers of over 10,000 people.

Another way to look at city growth is to look at the overall population growth percentage from 2012 to 2017. According to the Census Bureau, the ten cities that had the highest growth percentage during this period are:

1. Seattle, WA
2. Austin, TX
3. Forth Worth, TX
4. Miami, FL
5. Denver, CO
6. Charlotte, NC
7. Omaha, NE
8. Mesa, AZ
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Raleigh, NC

Between 2012 and 2017, Seattle was the fastest-growing city, with a population increase of 14.2%. Austin follows this with 12.8%, and Fort Worth and Miami both with 12.0%. Both Seattle and Austin, the top two spots on the second list, are both technology hubs with leading research universities. Other comparable cities appear lower on the list with growth percentages.

In both sets of data, are the fastest-growing cities in the U.S. are located primarily in the South and in the West. Fortunately, many of the cities with the fastest population growth are among the cities with the fastest-growing job markets as well. These cities that overlap are Miami, Fort Worth, Denver, Mesa, Austin, Raleigh, and Charlotte.