D/FW Leads the Nation for Population Growth

The Dallas/Fort Worth population increased faster than the resident base in any other U.S. metro in the past ten years. North Texas has grown by more than 1.3 million people since 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 population estimates. Dallas Fort/Worth now ranks as the fourth largest metro in the nation with a total population of 7.7 million people. Houston was the only other market nationwide to show similar growth in the past decade, with a population increase of 1.2 million people. Houston is now the nation’s fifth largest market, with a population of 7.1 million people. At the next tier of growth, with a little more than half of the boosts seen in D/FW or Houston, were the population increases in Phoenix and Atlanta. In fact, several of the nation’s top growth markets were Sun Belt metros. These are the same markets which also led the apartment demand leaderboard in early 2021. Quite a few of these locations also are the spots where state and local governments are moving most quickly to re-open the economies and job gains are accelerating most notably.