Largest Cities Faced Sharpest Declines in Population Growth
Amid a widespread national slowdown in population growth, midsized cities remained close to the previous year’s patterns between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025. Drop-offs in average growth were steeper among the largest cities, according to U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 population estimates released today.
Even where the largest cities maintained strong growth, they were often outpaced by smaller cities in the outer portions of the same metro area. For example, Charlotte, N.C. — the nation’s 14th largest city — gained 20,731 residents between 2024 and 2025, more than any city in the country. However, among cities with a population of 20,000 or more, Charlotte was only the seventh fastest-growing city in its own metro area by percentage increase. The fastest was Fort Mill, S.C. — about 20 miles from downtown Charlotte — which grew by 6.8% to 38,673, ranking 20th nationally. The cities in the metro outranking Charlotte in growth were all midsized, with populations ranging from about 25,000 to 70,000.
Similar patterns, where the growth of central cities was outpaced by surrounding midsized cities, were evident throughout the country.
“Big-city growth slowed significantly between 2024 and 2025, with some major hubs even seeing small declines,” noted Matt Erickson, a statistician in the Census Bureau’s Population Division. “In contrast, midsized cities found a ‘Goldilocks zone’ where domestic and international migration, paired with new housing, helped prevent the sluggish growth seen in small towns and larger metropolitan centers.”
Alternatively, New York City’s population declined by 12,196 between 2024 and 2025, the greatest numeric decrease in the nation. Yet four incorporated places in the New York metro’s outer reaches numbered among the country’s 200 fastest-growing places by percentage change, led by Port Chester, N.Y., which ranked number 80 with a 4.1% increase. These fast-growing suburbs are all medium-sized, with populations between 25,000 and 40,000.
Growth slowdowns in the nation’s largest cities were most pronounced in the Northeast, where regional trends such as a drop-off in population gains from net international migration and domestic migration patterns favoring warm-weather destinationstrickled down into these major population centers.
The slowdown was not confined to the Northeast. Among the largest cities, average growth rates fell by at least half in every region compared with a year earlier. This was true even in the South, where cities and towns continued to lead the nation in average growth. Although the greatest declines were among the largest cities, average growth rates were lower in cities of all sizes and across every region compared to the prior year. In the Midwest, midsized cities were no exception. But relative to other regions, they maintained relatively stable population change.
Highlights
- The top five fastest-growing cities in the nation with populations of 20,000 or more were all in Texas, with four of them clustered in the suburbs of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area and the fifth located outside Houston. Celina, Texas (near Dallas), was the fastest-growing city in the nation, surging by a notable 24.6%. Rapid growth is nothing new for Celina, which was also the nation’s fastest-growing city in 2023.
- The South dominates the lists of the nation’s fastest-growing and highest-gaining cities. The region claims 10 of the nation’s 15 fastest-growing cities as well as 11 of the 12 largest numeric gains.
- Austin, Texas, is now one of a dozen U.S. cities with at least 1 million residents after crossing the seven-digit population threshold between 2024 and 2025.
- Raleigh, N.C., crossed the 500,000-population threshold between 2024 and 2025, bringing the total number of cities with 500,000 or more residents to 39 nationwide.
National and State-Level Housing Stocks
Although population growth slowed nationwide between 2024 and 2025, housing growth did not. The nation’s housing stock — defined as the total number of housing units — reached 148.3 million in 2025, an increase of 1.4 million (1.0%) from 2024, nearly identical to the increase over the previous one-year period. From April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025, the housing stock increased by 7.8 million (5.5%).
California continued to lead all states in total housing stock by a wide margin, with little change in the overall rankings. California’s 15 million units were followed by Texas (12.8 million) and Florida (10.8 million), while Wyoming (283,800) and Alaska (331,200) retained the smallest stock.
Idaho consistently had the highest annual percentage growth in housing units across all years from 2020 to 2025. From July 1, 2024, to July 1, 2025, Idaho recorded a 2.1% increase, followed by Arizona at 2.0% and South Carolina at 1.9%.
Conversely, the District of Columbia and New Jersey had the slowest rates of housing growth with each posting just 0.2% increases, while Alaska, Rhode Island, Illinois and Connecticut had slightly higher growth rates of 0.3 percent, highlighting the wide variation across the country.
County-Level Housing Stocks
Jasper County, S.C., had the fastest-growing housing stock of any county in the nation for the second year in a row according to the Vintage 2025 estimates — and by a wide margin. The distance between Jasper County’s growth rate (8.3%) and that of the number 2 fastest-growing county (Dawson County, Ga., at 6.3%) was about the same as the distance between number 2 and number 18 on the list.
For the second year in a row, Maricopa County, Ariz., gained more housing units than any other county: about 42,000 between 2024 and 2025. Rounding out the top five counties by numeric gain in housing units were Harris County, Texas (28,000 units); Kings County, N.Y. (19,000); Los Angeles County, Calif. (19,000); and Tarrant County, Texas (18,000).
The largest numeric decreases in housing units among counties or county equivalents between 2024 and 2025 were in St. Louis city, Mo. (202 units); Alexandria city, Va. (127 units); and Newport News city, Va. (123 units).
Technical Notes
The statistics released today cover all local functioning governmental units, including incorporated places (such as cities and towns), minor civil divisions (such as townships), and consolidated cities (government units for which the functions of an incorporated place and its parent county have merged). This release incorporates results from eligible full special census areas and successful population estimates challenges.
The Vintage 2025 methodology statement and release notes are available on the Methodology webpage.
In June, the Census Bureau is scheduled to release the Vintage 2025 population estimates by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin for the nation, states, metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas, and counties, as well as population by age and sex for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and its municipios. The full release schedule for the Population Estimates Program can be found on the Census Bureau’s website.
With each new release of annual estimates, the entire time series of estimates is revised for all years back to the date of the last census. All previously published estimates (i.e., old vintages) are superseded and archived on the FTP2 site. Due to periodic methodological updates, year-to-year comparisons of the estimates should only be made within the same vintage.
Tables
| Numeric Change | Percent Change | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population Size | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 |
| Small (0-4,999) | 6 | 4 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
| Medium (5,000-49,999) | 173 | 121 | 1.0 | 0.7 |
| Large (50,000-249,999) | 913 | 520 | 1.0 | 0.5 |
| Largest (250,000+) | 7,699 | 2,048 | 0.9 | 0.3 |
| 1 Population as of July 1, 2023.Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 Population Estimates. | ||||
| Largest (250,000+) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Percent Change | |||
| Region | Number of Areas | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 |
| (1) Northeast | 7 | 1.2 | 0.2 |
| (2) Midwest | 17 | 0.6 | 0.2 |
| (3) South | 34 | 1.1 | 0.5 |
| (4) West | 33 | 0.8 | 0.3 |
| 1 Population as of July 1, 2023Source: Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 Population Estimates | |||
| Rank | Area | State | Percent Increase | 2025 Total Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Celina city | Texas | 24.6 | 64,427 |
| 2 | Fulshear city | Texas | 21.0 | 64,630 |
| 3 | Princeton city | Texas | 18.1 | 43,524 |
| 4 | Melissa city | Texas | 14.5 | 29,969 |
| 5 | Anna city | Texas | 10.2 | 35,245 |
| 6 | Haines City city | Florida | 10.0 | 45,973 |
| 7 | Waukee city | Iowa | 9.3 | 34,890 |
| 8 | Forney city | Texas | 8.5 | 41,658 |
| 9 | Eagle Mountain city | Utah | 8.5 | 66,557 |
| 10 | Johnstown town | Colorado | 8.4 | 22,433 |
| 11 | Kuna city | Idaho | 8.4 | 31,525 |
| 12 | Queen Creek town | Arizona | 8.2 | 89,770 |
| 13 | Hutto city | Texas | 7.9 | 46,048 |
| 14 | Foley city | Alabama | 7.8 | 30,354 |
| 15 | Greenville city | Texas | 7.5 | 37,069 |
| 1 Population as of July 1, 2024Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 Population Estimates | ||||
| Rank | Area Name | State Name | Numeric Increase | 2025 Total Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charlotte city | North Carolina | 20,731 | 964,784 |
| 2 | Fort Worth city | Texas | 19,512 | 1,028,117 |
| 3 | San Antonio city | Texas | 14,359 | 1,548,422 |
| 4 | Celina city | Texas | 12,710 | 64,427 |
| 5 | Seattle city | Washington | 11,572 | 784,777 |
| 6 | Houston city | Texas | 11,515 | 2,397,315 |
| 7 | Fulshear city | Texas | 11,196 | 64,630 |
| 8 | Nashville-Davidson2 | Tennessee | 9,244 | 721,074 |
| 9 | Port St. Lucie city | Florida | 9,131 | 268,062 |
| 10 | McKinney city | Texas | 8,504 | 236,001 |
| 11 | Atlanta city | Georgia | 8,350 | 529,110 |
| 12 | Jacksonville city | Florida | 8,319 | 1,017,689 |
| 13 | Surprise city | Arizona | 7,702 | 175,304 |
| 14 | Columbus city | Ohio | 7,696 | 938,396 |
| 15 | Goodyear city | Arizona | 7,690 | 125,359 |
| 1 Population as of July 1, 20242 Refers to the “balance” of Nashville-Davidson metropolitan government. The balance is the consolidated city minus semi-independent incorporated places within its boundaries.Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 Population Estimates | ||||
| Rank | City | State | Total Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York city | New York | 8,584,629 |
| 2 | Los Angeles city | California | 3,869,089 |
| 3 | Chicago city | Illinois | 2,731,585 |
| 4 | Houston city | Texas | 2,397,315 |
| 5 | Phoenix city | Arizona | 1,665,481 |
| 6 | Philadelphia city | Pennsylvania | 1,574,281 |
| 7 | San Antonio city | Texas | 1,548,422 |
| 8 | San Diego city | California | 1,406,106 |
| 9 | Dallas city | Texas | 1,329,491 |
| 10 | Fort Worth city | Texas | 1,028,117 |
| 11 | Jacksonville city | Florida | 1,017,689 |
| 12 | Austin city | Texas | 1,002,632 |
| 13 | San Jose city | California | 989,814 |
| 14 | Charlotte city | North Carolina | 964,784 |
| 15 | Columbus city | Ohio | 938,396 |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 Population Estimates | |||