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D-FW grew fastest of large urban areas Growth rate more than twice U.S. average 04/03/2001 By Chris Kelley / The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas-Fort Worth metropolis is the fastest-growing large urban area in the nation and has joined an elite group of nine U.S. metropolitan regions with populations exceeding 5 million people, the U.S. Census Bureau said Monday.
Put another way, Texas' largest metropolitan area now has more people – 5,221,801 residents – than 31 U.S. states. Arizona, for instance, has about 5.1 million residents.
The D-FW area grew 29.3 percent between 1990 and 2000 – more than twice the national growth rate of about 13 percent during the same period, census 2000 figures show.
"The D-FW region has a good transportation system. We have land we need to grow on. We have a very large workforce with our immigrant community. And we're in the middle of the country – the fair weather middle," said Bob O'Neal, director of research and information services at the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
The census 2000 population figures released Monday show that Texas is home to:
• Three of the 10 fastest-growing metropolitan areas between 1990 and 2000: McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, which ranked No. 4; Austin-San Marcos, No. 5; and Laredo, No. 9.
• Three of the nation's 10 largest cities: Houston, which ranked No. 4; Dallas, No. 8; and San Antonio, No. 9.
• Two of the nation's 10 most populous counties: Harris (No. 3 with 3.4 million residents) and Dallas (No. 10 with 2.2 million people).
• One of the nation's top 10 fastest-growing counties: Collin, which grew 86 percent between 1990 and 2000 to a population of about 492,000, earned the No. 8 ranking.
• Four of the top 10 counties that recorded the largest percentage population declines between 1990 and 2000 – all in West Texas and the Panhandle. Loving County, which ranked No. 2 only behind the Aleutians area of Alaska, lost 37 percent of its population and is home to 67 residents; Reagan County, No. 4 on the list, lost 26 percent and now has 3,326 people; Upton County, No. 7, lost 23 percent and has 3,404 people; Terrell County, No. 8, lost 23 percent and has 1,081 residents.
"Texas continues to be a state of great demographic contrasts," said Steve Murdock, chief demographer of the Texas State Data Center at Texas A&M University. "We have some of the fastest-growing metro areas in the nation and some counties with the largest percentage population declines."
Nationally, the population grew from 248.7 million in 1990 to 281.4 million in 2000. The addition of 32.7 million people in one decade represents the largest census-to-census increase ever.
Texas' addition of 3.9 million residents represents the state's largest numerical census-to-census increase, the Texas State Data Center said. In fact, one of every eight people added to the U.S. population was added in the Lone Star State. Texas, second in population only to California, saw its population rise to 20.8 million in 2000 from 16.9 million a decade earlier.
The 13 counties that make up the Dallas-Fort Worth consolidated metropolitan area added nearly 1.2 million new residents between 1990 and 2000 – a population increase that is the size of Dallas. The Houston-Galveston-Brazoria consolidated metropolitan area, the state's second-largest urban region, added about 940,000 new residents for a population of about 4.7 million people.
"These numbers tell us what we already know – that people continue to relocate to North Texas because of the many opportunities available here," said Mayor Ron Kirk. "This rapid growth provides challenges ... air quality, transportation infrastructure and urban sprawl. It also adds to the diversity of workforce and neighborhoods."
Indeed, growth in the Hispanic population is largely behind the growth in the D-FW region's central cities and counties, demographers say. Dallas' Hispanic population doubled between 1990 and 2000 and makes up about 35 percent of the city's population of nearly 1.2 million people.
"The biggest challenge that we face is serving the large Hispanic population, particularly the non-English-speaking population," said Dallas lawyer and civic leader Adelfa Callejo. "Hispanics are underrepresented in every public institution – the city, the county, the hospital district, the school district, the community college system, DART. Now we have this huge population explosion. I hope now we have all learned to count." |
