The Villages retirement community in Florida experienced the highest percentage of population growth of any metropolitan area in the United States between 2010 and 2018, according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau.
Population there grew from an estimate of 93,420 on April 1, 2010, to 128,754 as of July 1, 2018, the bureau said. That’s a growth rate of 37.8%.
No. 2 on the list was the Myrtle Beach–Conway–North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina / North Carolina metro area, growing from 376,555 in 2010 to 480,891 in 2018, a rate of 27.7%, according to the Census Bureau.
Looking at percentage population growth from just 2017 to 2018, The Villages was No. 6 out of all metropolitan areas in the country. Population there was 124,933 on July 1, 2017, before growing to 128,754 as of July 1, 2018. That’s a growth rate of 3.1%.
Midland, TX, was the metro area with the largest population growth from 2017 to 2018, going from 170,948 to 178,331 people in that time, a growth rate of 4.3%, according to the Census Bureau.
Also according to the data:
- Counties with the largest numeric growth between 2017 and 2018 all were located in the South and the West, with counties in Texas occupying four of the top 10 spots.
- Among counties with populations of at least 20,000, Williams County, ND, was the fastest-growing county by percentage, increasing by 5.9% between 2017 and 2018 (from 33,395 to 35,350).
- By metropolitan area, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX, had the largest numeric growth, with a gain of 131,767 (1.8%) in 2018.
