Census Bureau Releases City Population Figures

The U.S. Census Bureau has released its annual population estimates for U.S. cities and the Austin Business Journal has published an article highlighting some of the major findings from this data release. The article can be found online here.

It's no secret that many cities in the Capital Area region have experienced high rates of growth over the past decade. We've put together a map and a couple of tables that highlight some of the new population data. Note, the population figures are as of July 1, 2008.

The map shows the population of each city in our region and categorizes both the numeric growth (by size of each dot) and the percentage growth (by the color of each dot) over the past year from 2007-2008. Check the map out, here.

There are also many interesting oneliners that can be said of growth in the cities of our region. The first table shows the population estimates and percent and numeric change for some of the biggest gainers. Cities were selected in this list based on whether they were in the Top 100 in the U.S. or Top 50 in Texas for percent or numeric growth from 2000 to 2008 or 2007 to 2008. While the second table shows where that city ranks in those lists versus other Texas and U.S. cities.

(click image for larger version)


(click image for larger version)


Before we start comparing though, we must advise that comparing percentage growth for a large city like Austin (2.5% from 2007-2008) to a small town like Round Top (7.7% from 2007 to 2008) may not be the best comparision. It might better to group cities by relative size.

Chris Ramser