Austin Population Surpasses Two Million, Texas Leads the Nation in Population Growth

Austin, Texas has reached a new population record, surpassing the two-million mark, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Bureau also reported that four Texas metro areas — Austin-Round Rock, San Antonio-New Braunfels, Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington — collectively added more people in 2015 than any other state, adding about 412,000 people.

Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land added 159,000 people between July 1, 2014, and July 1, 2015. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington added 145,000 residents. And San Antonio-New Braunfels and Austin-Round Rock each added over 50,000 people, which pushed Austin over the two-million mark. Texas as a whole gained about 490,000 people.

Austin’s specific population gain was 57,395, which equates to about 157 people per day that Austin gained from July 1, 2014 to July 1, 2015, either from moving into town or through birth. The official population estimate for Austin as of July 1, 2015 was 2,000,860, although keep in mind this figure is almost nine months outdated compared to the release of this data, which means Austin likely is even larger now by tens of thousands.

The driving counties for Texas’ population growth were Tarrant, Dallas, Collin, and Denton Counties in the Dallas metro; Harris and Fort Bend Counties in the Houston metro; Bexar County in the San Antonio metro; and Travis County in the Austin metro. Harris County was the top county for growth in the nation, gaining more than 90,000 people.

Austin, Houston, and Orlando, Florida were the only three metro areas in the United States to appear both in the top 20 metro areas with the largest numeric gains and in the top 20 metro areas with the largest percentage gain in population. Midland, Odessa, and College Station-Bryan also were among the 20 fastest growing areas. Percentage-wise, Fort Bend was the fastest-growing county in Texas among large counties (populations over 250,000), with a 4.3 percent growth.

Among Texas counties with very small populations – under 5,000 people – Loving was the fastest growing, with a whopping 28.7 percent growth in its population.

The Census Bureau looked at population estimates for 381 metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S., 536 micropolitan statistical areas, and 3,142 counties.