The U.S. Census Bureau released their Vintage 2021 estimates of population and components of change data on March 24. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area saw the highest population growth of any metro area in 2021.
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (DFW) area’s population grew by 97,290 within one year, roughly the size of the whole population of Allen, Texas, which has a population of 105,000. The Census Bureau reports the 2021 DFW population leaped from 7.6 million in July of 2020 to 7.7 in July of 2021 (7,662,325 and 7,759,615, respectively, or an increase of 1.3%)
There are 384 metro areas in the fifty U.S. states and the District of Columbia (D.C), 213 of which experienced a natural decrease in 2021 — but the DFW metro did not.
The Census Bureau said 63% of metro areas had positive net domestic migration in 2021. The DFW metroplex ranked second in that category (54,319 total) to the total in the Phoenix metro area of 66,850.
“The patterns we’ve observed in domestic migration shifted in 2021,” Assistant Division Chief of the Census Bureau’s Population Division, Dr. Christine Hartley, said. “Even though over time we’ve seen a higher number of counties with natural decrease and net international migration continuing to decline, in the past year, the contribution of domestic migration counteracted these trends, so there were actually more counties growing than losing population.”
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s decrease in population was the highest for a metro area in the nation at 10,838.
The bureau projected DFW’s population to be 7,759,615 as of July 1, 2021. Inside the DFW Metroplex, the population saw significant growth in Denton and Collin Counties. Texas had five of the top ten fastest-growing counties in 2021; Collin, Denton, Fort Bend, Williamson, and Montgomery counties gained a combined 145,663 new residents.
Collin County’s population grew by 36,313 between July 2020 and July 2021, making it the second-largest county with the most new residents. A total of 58,246 people moved to Arizona and Maricopa Counties in the last year, giving that county the highest increase.
Collin County came in third in the country with an extra 30,191 people.
According to the census report, other prominent Texas metro areas are ranked top ten nationally in terms of numeric population growth. They are:
- Houston metro: Ranked third with 69,094 new residents and 7,206,841 total. (1% increase.)
- Austin metro: Ranked fourth with 53,301 new residents and 2,352,426, total. (2.3% increase.)
- San Antonio metro: Ranked eighth with 35,105 new residents and 1,601,788 total. (2.2% increase.)
In 2021, three states had populations greater than 20 million: California (39,237,836), Texas (29,527,941), and Florida (21,781,128). In the last year, New York’s population fell below 20 million, from 20,154,933 to 19,835,913.
The states with the highest net domestic migration gains were Florida (220,890), Texas (170,307), and Arizona (93,026).