Growing Pains

Forbes Magazine has just released this year’s list of the fastest growing cities in America, and the top three are from Texas.

With an estimated annual population growth rate of 3% for 2012 and 2013, a 3% rate of job growth in 2012, 4.9% unemployment, and an economy that expanded 6.3% last year, Austin takes the top spot on Forbes’ annual list of America’s Fastest Growing Cities for the third year in a row.

Houston came in number two, and Dallas was third.

The term Cities is a little misleading – Forbes uses Metropolitan Statistical Areas – so Austin includes Round Rock (and everything else along the I-35 corridor from Georgetown to San Marcos) and Dallas includes Ft. Worth, Arlington, etc. 

As they explain their criterion, they started with the 100 most populous Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), which are cities and their surrounding suburbs, as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. They rated these geographic areas based on six metrics.

“Using data from Moody’s Analytics, we assessed the estimated rate of population growth for 2012 and 2013, the rate of job growth in 2012, and the rate of gross metro product growth, or economic growth, for 2012. We also factored in federal unemployment data and median salaries for local college-educated workers, courtesy of Payscale.com. The result is a list of the 20 fastest growing metro areas in America in terms of population and economy.

Cities in Texas — which welcomed more than 427,000 newcomers from August 2011 to July 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — dominated our list.  Robust labor markets, unemployment rates under 6% (well below the national average),no state income tax, a business-friendly regulatory environment, and strong population inflows all contributed to Texas towns’ high rankings.”