US Census Bureau data for Austin and other cities

[JGFrisco]

Just released today. Official census estimates for 2013.

Travis 1,120,954
Williamson 471,014
Hays 176,026
Bastrop 75,825
Caldwell 39.032

Total Austin MSA 1,883,051

[JGFrisco]

Dfw 6,749,350

[electricron]

Originally Posted by JGFrisco

Dfw 6,749,350

Actually per http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/chs/popdat/ST2014.shtm -
DFW is 6985579, about 400,000 more than your data.

FYI, here's the top 10 Texas metros.
*1)DFW (both sides) 6,985,579
1)Houston 6,484,279
2)Dallas (its side) 4,627,393
3)Fort Worth (its side) 2,358,186
4)San Antonio 2,334,263
5)Austin 1,938,858
6)McAllen 862,768
7)El Paso 862,638
8)Killeen-Temple 445,356
9)Corpus Christi 443,351
10)Brownsville-Harligen 439,437

I listed them this way because Fort Worth never gets the respect it deserves.

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by electricron

Actually per http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/chs/popdat/ST2014.shtm -
DFW is 6985579, about 400,000 more than your data.

FYI, here's the top 10 Texas metros.
*1)DFW (both sides) 6,985,579
1)Houston 6,484,279
2)Dallas (its side) 4,627,393
3)Fort Worth (its side) 2,358,186
4)San Antonio 2,334,263
5)Austin 1,938,858
6)McAllen 862,768
7)El Paso 862,638
8)Killeen-Temple 445,356
9)Corpus Christi 443,351
10)Brownsville-Harligen 439,437

I listed them this way because Fort Worth never gets the respect it deserves.

These numbers are all bigger than the census release because they are 2014 projections and the census numbers are for 2013.

[Jdawgboy]

Thats true. The official numbers are from july 2012 to July 2013. We are well in the middle of the 2014 cycle and from what we know currently, I would expect to see an increase in the growth come the end of next March.

[JGFrisco]

SA 2,215,000 approx.

[bigdogc]

That is crazy. 2.5% for Austin. Houston is growing like crazy too.

http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/...xhtml?src=bkmk

For those interested

[JoninATX]

Pretty much, I can say that they are pretty close has to how many people are in each of those cities currently.

[JGFrisco]

One thing I just don't understand is why the Rio Grande Valley is listed as separate MSAs for Brownsville and McAllen. Anyone who has been down there knows it is one metro area. There are lots of smaller cities, but it's really just one area, with a pop of about 1.25 million.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by JGFrisco

One thing I just don't understand is why the Rio Grande Valley is listed as separate MSAs for Brownsville and McAllen. Anyone who has been down there knows it is one metro area. There are lots of smaller cities, but it's really just one area, with a pop of about 1.25 million.

Because hardly anyone commutes from Cameron County into Hidalgo County for work every day. 25% of the workforce of a county must commute into the core county every day.

[JGFrisco]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Because hardly anyone commutes from Cameron County into Hidalgo County for work every day. 25% of the workforce of a county must commute into the core county every day.

I understand the census people's reasoning, I just disagree with using that as the way to consider whether an area is one metro area or not. People in Fort Worth don't have to commute into Dallas to be part of the DFW MSA. And in fact, using commuting to work as the primary way of figuring whether counties are part of the same metro area is pretty outdated, given the prevalance of secondary business centers and people working at home.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by JGFrisco

I understand the census people's reasoning, I just disagree with using that as the way to consider whether an area is one metro area or not. People in Fort Worth don't have to commute into Dallas to be part of the DFW MSA. And in fact, using commuting to work as the primary way of figuring whether counties are part of the same metro area is pretty outdated, given the prevalance of secondary business centers and people working at home.

I'm going to disagree because you forgot why the OMB invented these statistical areas- enforcing America's equal opportunity laws. That's equal opportunities for jobs, and commuting patterns is amongst the most important factors to consider.

It's obvious San Antonio's military based economy doesn't mix in well with Austin's state government and state supported university based economy. The longer distance between the cities means there are far less commuting between them.

I don't think OMB thinks the economies are joined enough to make a CSA either.

[Owlhorn]

Originally Posted by JGFrisco

I understand the census people's reasoning, I just disagree with using that as the way to consider whether an area is one metro area or not. People in Fort Worth don't have to commute into Dallas to be part of the DFW MSA. And in fact, using commuting to work as the primary way of figuring whether counties are part of the same metro area is pretty outdated, given the prevalance of secondary business centers and people working at home.

Don't know why DFW is used so often in these discussion with SA/Austin. People in DFW work all over the metro and its just not some big deal. I technically worked in the FW-Arlington MSA for a few years and it was like 15 minutes from my house in Dallas. When I worked in Farmers Branch, lots of people lived in places like Grapevine, Euless, Flower Mound. When I worked in McKinney, there were lots of people from Greenville, Sherman, Denton, Dallas. We share an airport, we have shared television and radio since the technologies began. The only way DFW could be closer is if Dallas and Fort Worth proper shared a border. Instead they are 10 minutes apart along 183. A lot of huge employers(larger employers than say downtown San Antonio and Austin combined) like DFW Airport, Las Colinas and Centreport along with Hays and Comal growing to about a million or 2 needs to happen. Those two metros are just not economically intertwined like DFW.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by Owlhorn

Don't know why DFW is used so often in these discussion with SA/Austin. People in DFW work all over the metro and its just not some big deal. I technically worked in the FW-Arlington MSA for a few years and it was like 15 minutes from my house in Dallas. When I worked in Farmers Branch, lots of people lived in places like Grapevine, Euless, Flower Mound. When I worked in McKinney, there were lots of people from Greenville, Sherman, Denton, Dallas. We share an airport, we have shared television and radio since the technologies began. The only way DFW could be closer is if Dallas and Fort Worth proper shared a border. Instead they are 10 minutes apart along 183. A lot of huge employers(larger employers than say downtown San Antonio and Austin combined) like DFW Airport, Las Colinas and Centreport along with Hays and Comal growing to about a million or 2 needs to happen. Those two metros are just not economically intertwined like DFW.

Amen to that, but local boosters are somehow determined to make SA/Austin CSA become a reality. As things currently stand, it is an absurd concept for the reasons you state above. The economy of the DFW area, the commute patterns, the integrated freeway system, the multiple major employment nodes, the combined media market, the shared airport, sports teams, etc. I personally don't know why some folks are not happy to have the Austin metro the way it is now-simply put the fastest growing major metro in the US.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by Owlhorn

Don't know why DFW is used so often in these discussion with SA/Austin. People in DFW work all over the metro and its just not some big deal. I technically worked in the FW-Arlington MSA for a few years and it was like 15 minutes from my house in Dallas. When I worked in Farmers Branch, lots of people lived in places like Grapevine, Euless, Flower Mound. When I worked in McKinney, there were lots of people from Greenville, Sherman, Denton, Dallas. We share an airport, we have shared television and radio since the technologies began. The only way DFW could be closer is if Dallas and Fort Worth proper shared a border. Instead they are 10 minutes apart along 183. A lot of huge employers(larger employers than say downtown San Antonio and Austin combined) like DFW Airport, Las Colinas and Centreport along with Hays and Comal growing to about a million or 2 needs to happen. Those two metros are just not economically intertwined like DFW.

I agree that DFW is integrated to an extent that Austin and San Antonio will probably never be. However, that's probably too high a bar. DFW is possibly the _most_ integrated of CSAs, and as you mentioned the two cities are a lot closer. But there are other CSAs that are significantly more geographically separated (example Detroit and Flint, 68 miles apart).

[JGFrisco]

Houston 2013 estimate 6,284,311

140,000 increase over 2012. That's 383 new residents every single day.

[hookem]

What isn't noted in most of the articles about the new census data:

Austin is the fastest growing "large" metro (>1m) in the country.

If you look at the top 10, everything growing at a faster rate than Austin are smaller metros. So despite the bigger rates (in smaller cities), and larger raw numbers (in much bigger metros), Austin is technically the fastest growing major city in the country. Which is certainly what it feels like.

[GoldenBoot]

The above SA Metro population estimates are incorrect. SA Metro has an estimated July 1, 2013 population of 2,277,550. I was surprised at the rates for both Austin and San Antonio. I would have expected them to be slightly higher.

I also believe that Austin's growth will be greater than it's 2012-2013 rate of 2.6% for the current year (2013-2014).

At the current estimated annual rates of growth for both Austin and San Antonio (calculated from July 1, 2010 through July 1, 2013), Austin would surpass San Antonio in total metropolitan area population by 2030 or 2031 (assuming no additional counties are added to either metropolitan area between now and then and annual growth rates remain constant at 3.00% and 1.92%, respectively). Interesting...considering nothing (i.e., economy) remains the same. Especially over this amount of time.

[GoldenBoot]

Did you know:

If Austin/San Antonio region was actually recognized as a Consolidated Statistical Area, based on current estimates, it would rank as the 14th largest CSA in the country? About 300,000 fewer than Seattle-Tacoma and almost 400,000 more than Minneapolis-St. Paul.

As I love running numbers...In a very simple run: A-SA would surpass the 5 million mark in late 2020; the 6 million mark by 2028; the 7 million mark in 2035; and almost have 8 million in 2040. By then (2040), the A-SA CSA would move up the ranking charts to become the 11th largest CSA in America; a hair above Philadelphia-Reading-Camden and just under 900,000 below Atlanta-Athens-Clarke County-Sandy Springs. Again, using current annual estimated rates of growth (from 7/1/2010 through 7/1/2013), assuming no new areas were added to said CSA, and the economic variable remains the same (which is unlikely). I'll do more of a true statistical analysis when I get more time.

[JoninATX]

The Austin- San Antonio area packs a big punch. Also what's really impressive is that a line is starting to form from the Waco area down to San Antonio. While I know it will be along time before it will truly connect, but it's still amazing to see.