Austin is the country’s fastest-growing major metro

The Austin-Round Rock metro’s population reached 2,168,000 as of July 1, 2018, according to Census Bureau estimates released in mid-April 2019.

That figure represented a 2.5% jump from last year—the highest percentage of growth for any U.S. metro with a population of one million or more for that period. The Austin area also showed a 26.3% increase in population since 2010—a higher growth rate for the period than that of any other large Texas city.

Numerically speaking, Texas’s Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro had the most growth in the nation in 2017-2018, according to the census numbers, with a gain of 131,767 (1.8 percent) . The state’s Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land area saw the third-highest population increase, with 91,689, for the year. (Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona, is sandwiched in there at number two). Austin ranked seventh during the time period, adding 53,086 people during the year.

The Austin metro moved up from the nation’s 34th largest to 30th largest in the country in 2018. The city of Austin (the part within city limits, rather than the larger metro area) is ranked as the 11th-largest in the country.