Texas was one of the five fastest growing states between 2000 and 2010, growing at double the national rate (20.6 percent compared with 9.7 percent). That growth has continued into the start of this decade.

Today, the Census Bureau released its first set of population estimates for incorporated cities and towns since the 2010 Census.  These estimates examine growth between Census Day (April 1, 2010) and July 1, 2011.  The list of large cities with the highest rate of growth was dominated by a single state: Texas.  Large cities include those with populations greater than 100,000.

As mentioned, the growth in the Lone Star State continued an overall trend we observed in the state between the 2000 and 2010 censuses.  However, the first slot on the list of fastest-growing large cities was captured by New Orleans, whose population has now reached nearly 80 percent of pre-Hurricane Katrina levels. Texas, however included eight of the top 15 fastest-growing large cities.

One of these cities, the state capital of Austin, is probably familiar to non-Texans. The others may not be as familiar, but they are now large places. They include Round Rock (north of Austin) and Plano, McKinney, Frisco, Denton and Carrollton (each north of Dallas), and McAllen.

Texas was also well-represented on the list of the 15 cities with the largest numerical increase since the 2010 Census, with six.  All are familiar names: Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and El Paso.  New York ranked first, however, as the Big Apple added nearly 70,000 people since the census.

New York, as it has for much of our nation’s history, retained its perch as the most populous city in 2011.  The 15 most populous cities did not change since the census, however Austin supplanted San Francisco as the 13th largest city.

For more findings, see the news release.