Maricopa County Added Over 222 People Per Day in 2016, More Than Any Other County

[Leo the Dog]

Maricopa County Added Over 222 People Per Day in 2016, More Than Any Other County

Maricopa County, Ariz., replaced Harris County, Texas, as the county with the nation's highest annual population growth, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates released today. Harris County was the largest numeric gainer for eight years in a row. Maricopa County gained 81,360 people between July 1, 2015 and July 1, 2016, or about 222 people per day, while the nation's second-largest population gainer, Harris County, gained 56,587 people, or about 155 people per day on average.

Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, primarily grew through the addition of 43,189 residents from net domestic migration, a measure of how many people move to or from an area versus other parts of the United States. The county also added 25,428 people from natural increase (more births than deaths) and 10,188 people from net international migration.

Harris County, Texas, home to Houston, saw changes in net domestic migration, going from a net gain of more than 17,000 to a net loss of more than 16,000. Despite this, Harris County had the second largest gain in population due to high natural increase (46,412) and net international migration (27,922).

Top 3 counties for negative growth.

These notable high-population counties continued to see population loss:

Cook County, Ill. (Chicago): -21,324.
Wayne County, Mich. (Detroit): -7,696.
Baltimore city, Md.: -6,738.
Baltimore city saw an increase in population loss this year primarily due to a doubling of its net domestic out-migration.

Other notable stats:

For the fourth year in a row, The Villages, Fla., a metro area west of the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Fla., metro area, was the nation's fastest-growing metro area, with a 4.3 percent population increase between 2015 and 2016.

The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas, and Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas, metro areas were the two largest numeric-gaining metro areas between 2015 and 2016, increasing by more than 100,000 each.

Four metro areas were among both the 25 fastest growing and the 25 largest numeric gaining between 2015 and 2016: Austin-Round Rock, Texas; Raleigh, N.C.; Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Fla.; and Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nev. For all four areas, net domestic migration was a larger component of change than either net international migration or natural increase

Among the 10 largest metro areas, the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Ill.-Ind.-Wis., metro area was the only metro area that did not grow in population between 2015 and 2016.

Source: Census.gov

[dave8721]

MSA's with the largest population increases from 2015 to 2016. Washington DC is the only one not in the South or West (sort of, some say its a Southern city):
(metros that grew by at least 40k)
Dallas: 143,435
Houston: 125,005
Pheonix: 93,680
Atlanta: 90,650
Seattle: 71,805
Miami: 64,670
Tampa: 61,085
Orlando: 59,125
Austin: 58,301
Washington DC: 53,508
Riverside: 52,400
Charlotte: 49,671
San Antonio: 47,906
Las Vegas: 46,375
Denver: 44,261
Los Angeles: 41,619
Portland: 40,148

[dave8721]

At the current growth rate Miami should pass Philadelphia for the 7th largest MSA any day now:
Philadelphia 2016 pop: 6,070,500 (grew by 8,197)
Miami 2016 pop: 6,066,387 (grew by 64,670)

Orlando and San Antonio passed Portland for 23rd and 24th largest MSA's.

[Pedestrian]

We have hit the peak years for Baby Boomers to retire and move to the sun belt. That is almost entirely fueling The Villages growth and partly fueling Maricopa County's (Maricopa has several Del Webb retirement communities as well as a lot of more affluent seniors in "regular" neighborhoods). Of course the availability of plenty of cheap desert land in and around Phoenix is also making it an attractive place for things like call centers and warehouses and distribution centers for the likes of Amazon as well as some manufacturing. Arizona is a pretty "business friendly" (meaning low tax/low regulation) kind of place yet adjacent and well-connected by road and rail to California (both its consumers and its ports).

[Crawford]

I'm surprised at Baltimore. Would live in Baltimore over any of these boomtowns. High salaries, great job market, great location and a real city with character.

[Pedestrian]

^^Well I did live in Baltimore for 4 years while in college and I enjoyed it. When I was a kid growing up in the suburbs of DC, Baltimore was perceived as a more "authentic" (if more blue collar) city than Washington and had better restaurants, and was just more interesting. But I think crime has ruined most of that. Violence, often drug-related, has pushed the middle class into smaller and smaller areas of the city, and pushed many of them out into both Baltimore and Howard Counties (even as far as Anne Arundel). My school was adjacent to the trendiest part of the city, now (but not then) known as Charles Village, and adjacent to the most affluent part: Guilford and Roland Park (in the great TV show, "The Wire", the white Mayor lived in one of those 2 but I forget which). I might still live in those areas. But other places I once roamed without much concern for safety are now distinctly dangerous, especially for the lightly complected.

[JManc]

Houston/ Harris county currently in an economic slump due to oil prices and its residual effects on the local economy. I'm sure once the sector picks up, the influx will increase...unfortunately.

[Ant131531]

What jobs are all of the immigrants moving to Houston getting because the job growth just does not line up well with the population growth of the region.

I mean Houston literally grew just 9.3k jobs between Jan 2016-2017. Source here: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/metro.t03.htm . Yet it grew 120k people between July 2015- July 2016...

Dallas on the other hand has a healthy job growth to population growth ratio. It grew 135k jobs between Jan 2016- Jan 2017 and has a population growth of 143k which makes more sense..

Houston has a lower job growth rate in both absolute numbers and percentage than many of these rustbelt cities that are stagnant or losing population. People from Houston might parade their growth as something "good", but I think it's very unhealthy considering the current state of it's economy.

[dc_denizen]

Geezers

[The North One]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

What jobs are all of the immigrants moving to Houston getting because the job growth just does not line up well with the population growth of the region. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/metro.t03.htm

Metro Detroit has a higher job growth percentage rate than Chicagoland, Houston and even New York? That's very interesting.

Thanks for the source.

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by dave8721

At the current growth rate Miami should pass Philadelphia for the 7th largest MSA any day now:
Philadelphia 2016 pop: 6,070,500 (grew by 8,197)
Miami 2016 pop: 6,066,387 (grew by 64,670)

Orlando and San Antonio passed Portland for 23rd and 24th largest MSA's.

Florida is doing great. Probably passed it in the fall and it's 3 months into 2017.

Great to see the figures for Tampa and Orlando.

Seattle is very impressive. Makes sense given how much the area is booming.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by The North One

Metro Detroit has a higher job growth percentage rate than Chicagoland, Houston and even New York? That's very interesting.

That isn't surprising. Metro Detroit is all about the auto industry, and the auto industry has record profits.

Also, Metro Detroit had, by far, the deepest job losses during the recession, so would naturally need faster job growth just to get its head above water. Job growth is inflated relative to previous job losses (you can't gain a job you never lost).

[Ant131531]

Originally Posted by Crawford

That isn't surprising. Metro Detroit is all about the auto industry, and the auto industry has record profits.

Also, Metro Detroit had, by far, the deepest job losses during the recession, so would naturally need faster job growth just to get its head above water. Job growth is inflated relative to previous job losses (you can't gain a job you never lost).

Wow...just looking at the employment numbers for Detroit and you're right...it has barely recovered the jobs it's lost during the recession and in fact, as of Jan 2017 isn't even above it's September 2007 peak for employment(though it was above it in the last few months of 2016 before losing a lot of jobs, probably seasonal).

Source: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/SMU2...de_graphs=true

Didn't even realize there were still metro areas out there that haven't fully recovered from the recession to this day and the recession officially ended 7-8 years ago.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

What jobs are all of the immigrants moving to Houston getting because the job growth just does not line up well with the population growth of the region.

I mean Houston literally grew just 9.3k jobs between Jan 2016-2017. Source here: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/metro.t03.htm . Yet it grew 120k people between July 2015- July 2016...

Dallas on the other hand has a healthy job growth to population growth ratio. It grew 135k jobs between Jan 2016- Jan 2017 and has a population growth of 143k which makes more sense..

Houston has a lower job growth rate in both absolute numbers and percentage than many of these rustbelt cities that are stagnant or losing population. People from Houston might parade their growth as something "good", but I think it's very unhealthy considering the current state of it's economy.

Revised figures show Houston area adding 18,000 jobs 12/2015-12/2016.http://www.bauer.uh.edu/centers/irf/houston-updates.php The article provides a pretty realistic appraisal of the impact of the fracking bust on the Houston economy and an historical overview that illustrates how this energy slump is so different from the one experienced in Houston in the 1980s.

This is not a great number, but there are maybe two things to note. Oil exploration and domestic drilling activity are on the upswing. This should have Houston firmly back in the official job creation game in 2017. Secondly, Houston is a bit like the LA area in that there are a lot of small businesses operated by immigrant families that provide employment opportunity (lots of it probably off the books) for many new arrivals. This is especially true for immigrants arriving from overseas (East and SE Asian mostly) and to a lesser extent to new arrivals from Latin America. There is no question that Houston's large natural increase is mostly derived from the immigrant population, and this causes additional strains on an already bare bones safety net and probably predicts additional problems associated with poverty, crime, public education, etc.

[TexasPlaya]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

What jobs are all of the immigrants moving to Houston getting because the job growth just does not line up well with the population growth of the region.

I mean Houston literally grew just 9.3k jobs between Jan 2016-2017. Source here: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/metro.t03.htm . Yet it grew 120k people between July 2015- July 2016...

Dallas on the other hand has a healthy job growth to population growth ratio. It grew 135k jobs between Jan 2016- Jan 2017 and has a population growth of 143k which makes more sense..

Houston has a lower job growth rate in both absolute numbers and percentage than many of these rustbelt cities that are stagnant or losing population. People from Houston might parade their growth as something "good", but I think it's very unhealthy considering the current state of it's economy.

I think it's more of the cumulative factor of the last 5-17 years that keeps people coming to Houston. It was a pretty bad two year slump (nothing like the 80s oil bust and subsequent lost decade of the 90s), but things are picking up again in 2017 and should be more so in 2018.

[TexasPlaya]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Revised figures show Houston area adding 18,000 jobs 12/2015-12/2016.http://www.bauer.uh.edu/centers/irf/houston-updates.php The article provides a pretty realistic appraisal of the impact of the fracking bust on the Houston economy and an historical overview that illustrates how this energy slump is so different that the one experienced in the 1980s.

This is not a great number, but there are maybe two things to note. Oil exploration and domestic drilling activity are on the upswing. This should have Houston firmly back in the official job creation game in 2017. Secondly, Houston is a bit like the LA area in that there are a lot of small businesses operated by immigrant families that provide employment opportunity (lots of it probably off the books) for many new arrivals. This is especially true for immigrants arriving from overseas (East and SE Asian mostly) and to a lesser extent to new arrivals from Latin America.

Immigrant owned small businesses would be an interesting stat to know by metro areas. I truly don't how significant it is, but business and labor laws are loose as hell in Texas.

[Ant131531]

Deleting post.

[chris08876]

In Maricopa County, whats the predominate construction type thats housing all of these new residents? Apartments/townhouses/single family homes?

Kinda not a fan of the growth in this county because this county sprawls horribly and I'd imagine people are going the single family home route, which creates terrible, soulless developments.

I'd rather see higher figures in DC or Seattle because at least the housing being built is more efficient.

[Parkway]

It's not surprising when you consider that Maricopa County is 500 square miles larger than the State of New Jersey.

[LouisianaRush]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I'm surprised at Baltimore. Would live in Baltimore over any of these boomtowns. High salaries, great job market, great location and a real city with character.

The riots happened. We are now experiencing a massive black flight from the city. The population growth of Caucasian, Latino, and Asians are not enough to off set this. Before the riots in 2014 the city was growing.