15 Fastest Growing US Cities Ranked by Population Growth

List of 15 fastest growing US cities ranked by population growth might surprise you in the end. While large, multi-million-inhabitant cities mostly exhibit steady growth rates – if they aren’t Detroit, Cleveland or Memphis, that is – smaller cities are the ones that take the biscuit percentage-wise. That’s why they grow the fastest, after all. While New York, for instance, has a steady rise in its population by roughly 80,000 people yearly, for the last 5 years, this only makes around 1% in a city of 8 million. Smaller cities like Austin, Texas, for instance, have seen a cumulative growth of 12.5% over the course of 5 years. This is the reason why you won’t find any of the 20 biggest cities in the United States on this list.

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Cities that will make the list are generally much smaller and don’t surpass the mark of 200,000 inhabitants that easy. They also don’t exhibit figures below the 50,000 inhabitants as well which creates a rather strict range with an amplitude of only 150,000 people. However, United States of America contain a vast number of cities and towns with exactly this type of population. Not all of them are as prolific as those that do make it to the list of 15 fastest growing US cities ranked by population growth, but it is evident that this population quantity is currently given city’s best shot at making a healthy, if somewhat scary growth.

In order to compile this list, we have used the most relevant data which came straight from the US Census Bureau. Data has been stretched across the last five years available which would include 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively. This actually means that we have used the cumulative figures for the latest available 5-year period, and not percentage changes from last two available years. We do understand that this list might have looked slightly different otherwise, but these are the most concise data figures available and numbers don’t lie. Most of these cities aren’t as interesting as United States’ largest metropolises, and they can’t compete with most of them if sheer gross population growth is being considered. Still, they will win on any given day when it comes to the simple percentage game.