City's growth still booming

[SAguy]

City's growth still booming

By Jeorge Zarazua
Express-News

New U.S. Census Bureau figures being released today show San Antonio with the third highest numerical gain in population among the nation's cities for the year ending July 2007.

Three other Texas cities also made the Top 10 growth list: Austin, Fort Worth and Houston.

Houston led the nation in numerical population growth, adding 38,932 residents between July 2006 and July 2007.

Its population now is estimated at 2.2 million, maintaining its status as the country's fourth largest city.

Forth Worth was fourth on the growth chart as a result of the number of residents it added during the year. Austin came in at No. 8.

The bureau's population estimates are based on housing unit figures, such as building permits and mobile home shipments, which are used to update population figures obtained during the last nationwide census count in 2000.

Accurate census figures are deemed crucial because the government uses the data to determine how many representatives each state has in Congress and how the more than 150 federal programs distribute billions of dollars in aid to cities.

Based on the booming population trend in Texas, the state could get two to four new congressional seats, State Demographer Karl Eschbach said.

San Antonio added 32,680 residents between July 2006 and July 2007, increasing its population to 1,328,984 from 1,296,304, according to the Census Bureau figures being released today.

The population here has steadily climbed since the 2000 count. Since then, San Antonio has gained more than 169,000 residents, an average of about 24,100 people per year.

Eschbach credits much of the growth to the city's strong and diverse economy, as well as its affordable house prices.

“San Antonio is a large community with lots of room for development and communities that are attractive to a wide variety of populations with different economic means,” he said.

Census Bureau estimates also showed the city continues to grow at a record pace.

Of the major cities in Texas, only Fort Worth's population is booming faster than San Antonio's, according to the Census Bureau.

Fort Worth's population has grown nearly 26 percent, or by 140,177 residents, since the Census 2000 count. By comparison, San Antonio's growth rate is 14.6 percent.

Eschbach does caution, however, that the downturn in the national economy will slow the rate of population growth for the state's cities.

“As far as whether it's going to continue, we already know that things are slowing down now throughout the state, including San Antonio,” he said. “We're still a leader in job growth, but it's slowing down here as well. I wouldn't expect growth in the next period to be just as fast as it was by the year covered by this estimate.”

The census figures showed New Orleans continues to rebound from Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall there in 2005.

New Orleans was the fastest-growing large city in the country, with its population increasing 13.8 percent to 239,124 during the one-year period ending July 2007.

Other estimates released earlier this year showed half of the nation's 10 counties with the most population growth in 2007 were in Texas, with Bexar County experiencing the sixth highest numerical gain overall.

The San Antonio metropolitan area also was listed as one of the Top 10 population gainers, along with Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston.

[oldmanshirt]

These population numbers just seem rather academic at this point, and honestly, metro-wide numbers are of greater interest to me. Of course SA proper is growing and will probably pass Philly within the next 3 years or so, but I'm wondering more about other metro cities. Is New Braunfels officially over 50k yet? How much have Schertz and Cibolo grown? Is Boerne over 10k? Are some of the inner-loop (1604) cities like Terrell Hills, Castle Hills, Hill Country Village and Leon Valley still stagnant or, in some cases, still losing people? Is Floresville still quietly booming?

I guess if I wasn't at work I could thoroughly investigate this myself, but its always more fun to just rant and expect other people to do the investigating in any case

[miaht82]

Not quite sure of the other areas of the metro area but I carefully watch the Southeast portion of the county bordering Wilson county and Wilson County itself. With Espada in the works, and all the development on and around BCB, I see signs of growth more than just the numbers. A new elementary school is being built halfway to Floresville, off of 775/3444, to accomodate for all of the new subdivisions, like Abrego Lake, and the start of Carrizo Ranch. Not only that but a new high school is about to break ground by the end of the year. It is still quietly growing and San Antonio is slowly creeping out slowly to that area off of 181. The est. population in 2005 for the county was around 37,000 (in 1990 it was 22,650), with a majority of that being on the loop created by 181/97/87 right outside of 1604. Floresville had a population of 7,387 in 2007 (est.), up from 5,868 in 2000.

[oldmanshirt]

http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/...EST2007-48.csv


City 2007 est (2006)(2000)

Alamo Hts 7438 (7266)(7319)
Balcones Hts 2976 (2974)(3016)
Bandera 1208 (1183)(957)
Boerne 9414 (8578)(6178)
Bulverde 4575 (4506)(3761)
Castle Hills 4178 (4152)(4202)
Castroville 3027 (2984)(2664)
China Grove 1290 (1282)(1247)
Cibolo 12385 (10054)(3035)
Converse 15471 (13940)(11508)
Elmendorf 764 (716)(664)
Fair Oaks Ranch 6153 (5951)(4695)
Floresville 7387 (7136)(5868)
Garden Ridge 2946 (2725)(1882)
Grey Forest 440 (437)(418)
Helotes 6681 (6494)(4285)
Hill Country Village 1100 (1076)(1028)
Hollywood Park 3268 (3237)(2983)
Hondo 8902 (8806)(7897)
Jourdanton 4295 (4266)(3732)
Kerrville 22661 (22394)(20425)
Kirby 8580 (8571)(8673)
La Vernia 1181 (1141)(931)
Leon Valley 10047 (9792)(9239)
Live Oak 12471 (11699)(9156)
Marion 1142 (1128)(1099)
Natalia 1844 (1818)(1663)
New Berlin 500 (493)(467)
New Braunfels 51804 (49212)(36494)
Olmos Park 2308 (2302)(2343)
Pleasanton 9591 (9366)(8266)
Poteet 3623 (3592)(3305)
Poth 2275 (2188)(1850)
St. Hedwig 2073 (2056)(1875)
San Antonio 1328984 (1296304)(1144646)
Santa Clara 912 (899)(889)
Schertz 29330 (27965)(18694)
Seguin 26051(25628)(22011)
Selma 3997 (2709)(788)
Shavano Park 3147 (3034)(1754)
Somerset 1826 (1795)(1550)
Universal City 17991 (17766)(14849)
Windcrest 5241 (5147)(5105)

[BigBird9]

Wow, New Braunfels is over 50,000 now, and Schertz is creeping up to 30,000 along with Seguin.

[oldmanshirt]

^ Yep, so it'll now be "San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX MSA".

Some of those cities surprised me. For instance, I assumed Bulverde and Helotes were growing faster than that. Percentage-wise, it looks like Selma is outgrowing everybody, even Cibolo, and Shavano Park has almost doubled in size this decade. Nice to see Leon Valley over 10k, as well. Looks like positive growth across the board from 06-07, although a few places are down in population since 2000.

Already looking forward to the '10 census

[sirkingwilliam]

I have to question the numbers. In 2007, the city of Schertz released numbers for the city and their population was 34,000.

Cibolo released numbers in May 07 and the population was 14,000.

Converse released numbers last year and their population was nearly 20,000.

[KevinFromTexas]

Here's the top 100 list of cities.

TABLE: Top 75 U.S. cities ranked by population

The 75 most populous cities — based on July 1, 2007, estimates — and the change over seven years:
2007 pop. % chng. 2000-07 2007 rank 2000 rank
New York 8,274,527 3.3% 1 1
Los Angeles 3,834,340 3.8% 2 2
Chicago 2,836,658 -2.1% 3 3
Houston 2,208,180 11.8% 4 4
Phoenix 1,552,259 17.4% 5 6
Philadelphia 1,449,634 -4.5% 6 5
San Antonio 1,328,984 14.6% 7 9
San Diego 1,266,731 3.5% 8 7
Dallas 1,240,499 4.4% 9 8
San Jose 939,899 4.9% 10 11
Detroit 916,952 -3.6% 11 10
Jacksonville 805,605 9.5% 12 14
Indianapolis 795,458 1.7% 13 12
San Francisco 764,976 -1.5% 14 13
Columbus, Ohio 747,755 4.9% 15 15
Austin 743,074 12.6% 16 17
Fort Worth 681,818 25.9% 17 28
Memphis 674,028 -2.4% 18 16
Charlotte 671,588 18.5% 19 22
Baltimore 637,455 -2.1% 20 18
El Paso 606,913 7.6% 21 23
Milwaukee 602,191 0.9% 22 19
Boston 599,351 1.7% 23 20
Seattle 594,210 5.5% 24 24
Nashville- Davidson, Tenn. 590,807 8.3% 25 27
Denver 588,349 6.3% 26 25
Washington 588,292 2.8% 27 21
Las Vegas 558,880 16.4% 28 33
Louisville-Jefferson, Ky. 557,789 1.2% 29 26
Portland, Ore. 550,396 4.0% 30 29
Oklahoma City 547,274 8.1% 31 30
Tucson 525,529 7.8% 32 31
Atlanta 519,145 24.2% 33 40
Albuquerque 518,271 15.3% 34 36
Fresno 470,508 9.5% 35 38
Long Beach 466,520 1.1% 36 35
Sacramento 460,242 13.1% 37 41
Mesa, Ariz. 452,933 13.8% 38 43
Kansas City, Mo. 450,375 2.0% 39 37
Cleveland 438,042 -8.3% 40 34
Virginia Beach 434,743 2.2% 41 39
Omaha 424,482 8.5% 42 45
Miami 409,719 13.0% 43 48
Oakland 401,489 0.5% 44 42
Tulsa 384,037 -2.3% 45 44
Minneapolis 377,392 -1.4% 46 46
Colorado Springs 376,427 4.2% 47 49
Raleigh, N.C. 375,806 31.6% 48 61
Honolulu 375,571 1.1% 49 47
Arlington, Texas 371,038 11.4% 50 54
Wichita 361,420 2.7% 51 50
St. Louis 350,759 0.7% 52 51
Santa Ana, Calif. 339,555 0.5% 53 52
Tampa 336,823 11.0% 54 58
Anaheim, Calif. 333,249 1.4% 55 56
Cincinnati 332,458 0.4% 56 55
Bakersfield, Calif. 315,837 29.6% 57 70
Aurora, Colo. 311,794 12.8% 58 63
Pittsburgh 311,218 -7.0% 59 53
Toledo, Ohio 295,029 -6.0% 60 57
Riverside, Calif. 294,437 15.1% 61 67
Stockton, Calif. 287,245 18.1% 62 71
Corpus Christi, Texas 285,507 2.9% 63 62
Newark 280,135 2.8% 64 64
Anchorage 279,671 7.4% 65 66
Lexington-Fayette, Ky. 279,044 7.1% 66 65
St. Paul 277,251 -3.3% 67 60
Buffalo 272,632 -6.8% 68 59
Plano, Texas 260,796 17.3% 69 79
Glendale, Ariz. 253,152 15.2% 70 81
Fort Wayne, Ind. 251,247 -0.2% 71 68
Henderson, Nev. 249,386 42.3% 72 119
Lincoln, Neb. 248,744 9.9% 73 78
Greensboro, N.C. 247,183 8.2% 74 76
St. Petersburg, Fla. 246,407 -0.8% 75 69

Source: Analysis of Census Bureau data by Paul Overberg, USA TODAY

[Paul in S.A TX]

I wonder the pop of metro SA is now?

[oldmanshirt]

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

I have to question the numbers. In 2007, the city of Schertz released numbers for the city and their population was 34,000.

Cibolo released numbers in May 07 and the population was 14,000.

Converse released numbers last year and their population was nearly 20,000.

Lots of cities claim that the census bureau lowballs their pop counts. Here in KC they're claiming to have been undercounted by 50-60k. You've pretty much got to assume that county and municipal numbers will always be more accurate.

[JACKinBeantown]

edit

[texboy]

GOOD LORD...Forth Worth is EXPLODING!

[oldmanshirt]

^For reals. Looks like the only cities that jumped more spots in the ranking are Raleigh, Bakersfield (?!), and Henderson, NV

Kind of surprsing to see both Minneapolis and St. Paul lost population, along with Chicago, San Fran, Memphis, and Tulsa.

[KevinFromTexas]

Fort Worth will probably end up passing Austin again. Austin should be passing Columbus and San Francisco though. Columbus only has 3,000 more and is growing 8% slower. San Francisco has 21,000 more, but is losing population at 1.5%.

Not that surprised about Memphis losing pop. Not much surprised by any of the cities that lost population except San Francisco, Minneapolis and Chicago.

[dollaztx]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Fort Worth will probably end up passing Austin again. Austin should be passing Columbus and San Francisco though. Columbus only has 3,000 more and is growing 8% slower. San Francisco has 21,000 more, but is losing population at 1.5%.

Not that surprised about Memphis losing pop. Not much surprised by any of the cities that lost population except San Francisco, Minneapolis and Chicago.

If the same growth continued for the next seven years Fort Worth would have more pop. than Austin and they would both rank just below Jacksonville. Houston would be 300,000 from passing Chicago.


2014

Jacksonville 882,137
Fort Worth 858,408
Austin 836,701
Indianapolis 808,980

[KevinFromTexas]

Oh, good, glad you did the math, I'm no good with population estimates.

[TexasBoi]

Cities over 100,000 in Texas in order.
Houston 2,208,150
San Antonio 1,328,984
Dallas 1,240,499
Austin 743,074
Fort Worth 681,818
El Paso 606,913
Arlington 371,038
Corpus Christi 285,507
Plano 260,796
Garland 218,792
Laredo 217,506
Lubbock 217,326
Irving 199,505
Amarillo 186,106
Brownsville 172,806
Grand Prairie 158,422
Pasadena 146,518
Mesquite 131,738
McAllen 127,245
Carrollton 123,799
Waco 122,222
Abilene 116,219
McKinney 115,620
Denton 115,506
Killeen 112,434
Beaumont 109,579
Midland 103,880
Wichita Falls 101,590

My first thought was that Austin is starting to explode once again. WOW@ Killeen. Looks like it will catch and pass Waco. I'm surprised that Round Rock has not cracked the mark yet. If I forgot a city, I'm truly sorry but I was going off the entire list. Easy to miss a city.

[oldmanshirt]

Its crazy to think that at least a third of those cities are just Dallas suburbs

[KevinFromTexas]

Tyler should be on that list. They have 105,873 (2007 number).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler%2C_Texas

San Angelo has 103,772 as of 2004:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Angelo%2C_Texas

Odessa is probably at 100,000 now too. They had 98,000 in 2000.

[oldmanshirt]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Tyler should be on that list. They have 105,873 (2007 number).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler%2C_Texas

San Angelo has 103,772 as of 2004:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Angelo%2C_Texas

Odessa is probably at 100,000 now too. They had 98,000 in 2000.

Bureau numbers say Tyler is at 96,451, Odessa 96,824, and San Angelo 90,483.