Steady Growth
San Antonio ranks among 10 major metros with biggest population jump from 2010 to 2020
Despite other Texas cities exploding in population growth, San Antonio is maintaining its rank as the 24th largest metro area in the country.
New figures from the U.S. Census Bureau put that figure into clearer perspective. Data from the 2020 Census released August 12 shows San Antonio still ranks 24th, with 2,558,143 residents.
Among the country’s 50 largest metro areas, Austin notched the biggest jump in population from 2010 to 2020 (33 percent), whereas San Antonio landed at No. 7 (19.4 percent) in terms of population growth in the 10-year period. Houston came in at No. 5 (20.3 percent), and Dallas-Fort Worth at No. 6 (20 percent).
Austin ranked second among metro areas of all sizes for population growth during the decade, trailing only The Villages, Florida, a 55-and-over retirement community (39 percent).
Dallas-Fort Worth remains the country’s fourth largest metro area (7,637,387 residents counted in the 2020 Census), and Houston maintains its position at No. 5 (7,122,240 residents), and Austin now ranks as the 28th most populous metro area in the U.S. (2,283,371 residents).
All four of the state’s major metros moved up the ranks of the biggest U.S. regions from 2010 to 2020.
Following the 2010 Census, Dallas-Fort Worth was the country’s sixth largest metro area (6,366,542 residents), Houston was No. 8 (5,920,416), San Antonio stood at No. 26 (2,142,508), and Austin was 37th (1,716,289).
Other highlights of the Census 2020 data include:
- Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston were two of the three U.S. metro areas to gain at least 1.2 million residents over the decade. New York City was the third.
- Fort Worth ranked as the fastest-growing big city in Texas between 2010 and 2020 (24 percent), followed by Austin (21.7 percent), Houston (9.8 percent), Dallas (8.9 percent), and San Antonio (8.1 percent).
- Two of the five U.S. counties that picked up at least 300,000 residents between 2010 and 2020 are in Texas — Harris County (638,686) and Tarrant County (301,606).
“Many counties within metro areas saw growth [from 2010 to 2020], especially those in the South and West. However, as we’ve been seeing in our annual population estimates, our nation is growing slower than it used to,” Marc Perry, senior demographer at the Census Bureau, says in a news release.
