Texas Population Growth 2000-2005

[Subdude]

San Antonio, Fort Worth growing a lot, tally finds

Census figures don't reflect the population shift after hurricanes

By MARK BABINECK

Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Only perpetually booming Phoenix added more people than San Antonio and Fort Worth in the year ending in July 2005, according to the Census Bureau's annual city population estimates released Tuesday. However, the figures don't reflect the demographic chaos caused weeks later by the Gulf Coast hurricanes.

San Antonio, which replaced San Diego as the seventh-largest city in the United States, and Fort Worth added about 21,000 people each, based on government estimates using housing statistics. Phoenix tacked nearly 44,500 people onto its tally.

Houston's population inched up about 5,000, and its total still sat just above 2 million to remain in fourth place nationally, well behind Chicago's 2.8 million population and well ahead of Philadelphia and Phoenix, which each had about 1.5 million. Officially, Philadelphia was listed as the fifth-largest city, followed by Phoenix.

For the record, pre-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans was the seventh-most-shrinking major U.S. city in numeric terms, dropping by approximately 6,252 residents from the previous year to about 455,000.

The official population impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on cities won't be released for another year. But earlier this month, the Census Bureau issued a special report that estimated the January 2006 population of Orleans Parish, which is dominated by New Orleans, at 158,000. Harris County registered a 92,000-person gain, although census officials acknowledged they didn't count thousands living in hotels and shelters.

Link to full article

[Jeebus]

"On Your Left!" Chicago. Just a few more years..

[Subdude]

To me the surprising thing about the 2005 census estimates is that Houston's population is estimated to have increased by only 5,000. That doesn't seem very substantial. Granted, next year will be more, but that's a one shot deal. Has our population growth slowed down?

[Trae]

I think looking at the metro areas are more significant. If you look at it that way, Austin's metro beat San Antonio by 24,000.

[Willy1]

...this article differs greatly from the 2005 estimates the NCTCOG estimated FW to have added. NCTCOG estimated that FW added 37K in 2005 and is predicting another record breaking year in 2006.