The fastest growing cities in the United States

Yahoo Finance ^ | 7/2/2009 | Les Christie

[SeekAndFind]

The Big Easy is making a big comeback. New Orleans has steadily won back some of the population it lost in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, according to a government report released Wednesday.

New Orleans lost more than half its residents during the deluge. Few large U.S. cities have ever had to cope with disaster on that scale. Since then, it has been one of the country's fastest growing cities.

Only a couple of instances can compare. Galveston, Texas, was also devastated by a hurricane in 1900, a storm that remains the most lethal natural disaster in U.S. history with a toll of about 6,000 deaths. And San Francisco was almost leveled by the earthquake and fire of 1906.

New Orleans is now growing rapidly. Its population is up 8.2% in 12 months that ended July 1, 2008, gaining 23,740 people to 311,853, according to the Census Bureau. That still leaves it well below its pre-storm population of 484,674.

For sheer numerical increase, New York City trumped the birthplace of jazz. During the same 12-month period, Gotham added nearly 53,500 residents, more than any other city. That represented a growth rate of only 0.6%.

Following New York City were Phoenix, which added 33,184 residents (2.1%) to a total of 1,567,924, and Houston, up 33,063 to 2,242,193 (1.5%).

The top percentage winners, after New Orleans, were Round Rock, Texas, part of Austin metropolitan area, which grew by 8.2% to 104,446; Cary, N.C., which gained 6.9% to 129,545; and Gilbert, Ariz., which swelled by 5% to 216,449.

New York retained its position as the largest U.S. city by far. Its nearly 8.4 million folks crammed into 303 square miles is more than twice the number of people who live in sprawling Los Angeles, the nation's second biggest city, 3,833,995 people.

[Flycatcher]

But Goldfield is just a pile of firewood at best.

LOL! Can't argue with you. But try the Northern Saloon. It's a nicely renovated miner's shack. Just had a beer there three days ago. Hit the spot!

[weston]

Rush cut his teeth in the Sacramento radio market. On the outskirts of Sac is Rio Linda. In th 80’s, when this started, I was a letter carrier there. Every other house had junk cars in the yard and an old refrigerator on the porch. The general population at that time seemed like they were straight out of the deliverance movie. Rush used to make me laugh so hard with his Rio Linda jokes.

[farlander]

Mmmm how interesting. I have been looking to move...

[SeaHawkFan]

Plus it is not in the city of Dallas.

[dfwgator]

I suspect New Orleans has gone from Dark Chocolate to Brown Chocolate.

[sheana]

Maybe we got lucky and a bunch of the illegals here have gone home. ;)

[Nosterrex]

It is hypocritical for those in the blue states to leave in order to come to a red state. They ruined those states with their liberal/socialistic politics, now they want to move out to destroy another state.

[Vinnie]

Cary, N.C.

I moved here in 1984. The population was 34,000 .

Almost 100,000 increase in 25 yrs. Argh

[bert]

i wonder about Cary. When I lived in Raleigh, Cary was where we went to get some good cheap bar b que. When they vote. are they a red or a blue zone. My cousins retired and moved there from Maryland

[kalee]

Known to be liberal.
Cary is locally referred to as the Containment Area for Relocated Yankees.

[SeekAndFind]

It is hypocritical for those in the blue states to leave in order to come to a red state. They ruined those states with their liberal/socialistic politics, now they want to move out to destroy another state.

That, I am afraid is the trend. The Massachusetts exodus to New Hampshire or the California exodus to Colorado for instance has shown that this is inevitable.