Census Says: Fort Worth Had America’s Largest Population Increase in 2022

Plus, Texas is the only state in the country that had more than three cities on both the 15 fastest-growing large cities and towns by numeric change and by percent change lists, per a new U.S. Census Bureau report.

Welcome to Fort Worth, Texas sign

The Panther City is pulling in the peeps.

Fort Worth had the largest numeric population gain of all American cities in 2022, with an increase of 19,170 people. Rounding out the top five cities in this category were Phoenix at No. 2 with an increase of 19,053 people, followed by San Antonio (18,889), Seattle (17,749), and Charlotte, North Carolina (15,217).

That’s according to Vintage 2022 Population Estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

An east-looking-west view of the Fort Worth skyline at sunset. [Image: Mark Perry/istock]

Fort Worth is the No. 13 most populous city in the U.S., with 956,709 people. Dallas is No. 9 with 1.3 million. Houston remains the most populous Texas city with 2.3 million, ranking No. 4 in the U.S. after New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. San Antonio is No. 7 (1.5 million). Austin is No. 10 (974,447).

Texas was the only state in the country that had more than three cities on both the 15 fastest-growing large cities and towns by numeric change and by percent change lists. 

Dallas-Fort Worth had the highest metro numeric population increase in U.S. between 2021 and 2022

In other top-line North Texas population news:

The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area had the highest numeric increase in population between 2021 and 2022 of any U.S. metro area, with an annual jump of 170,396 people—giving the DFW a population of nearly 8 million people (7,943,685). DFW was followed in the U.S. at No. 2 by the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metro area, which added 124,281 residents over the same time period.

In addition, Rockwall was one of just three locations across the U.S. in 2022 to join the Census Bureau’s list of cities with populations of 50,000 or more. Rockwall clocked in with 51,461 people, joining the two other newly listed cities Wake Forest, North Carolina (51,113) and Eagle Mountain, Utah (54,149).

Another Texas city topped the fastest-growing city by percent change list

“Georgetown, Texas, remained the fastest-growing city by percent change in 2022, with the highest rate of growth among all U.S. cities and towns with at least 50,000 people. It wasn’t the only city to retain its distinction over the year, however,” Crystal Delbé, a statistician in the Census Bureau’s Population Division, said in a statement. “New York remained the nation’s largest city, despite its recent population decline. At 8.3 million, its population was more than twice that of the next largest city, Los Angeles, with a population of nearly 4 million.”  

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R E A D   N E X T

  • Slated to be built in Fort Worth's Historic Southside neighborhood, the planned $70 million museum will get the city funding once the balance for the project has been raised. Designed by the New York office of Denmark-based Bjarke Ingels Group, the building will house the museum on its second level, with a business incubator, restaurant, 250-seat amphitheater, and storefronts at ground level. “Literally and figuratively, it was designed to be a beacon of light in an area that has been dark for a very long time,” says Jarred Howard, principal of the project's developer.

  • Entrepreneurs and industry leaders benefit from the city's business-friendly approach.

  • Rhithm, a Dallas social-emotional learning and mental health startup, raised $4 million in a seed round last year for its emoji-based bio-social assessments app, which is now used by over 2,400 schools in 29 states, according to the company. One district that adopted the app is Fort Worth ISD—and it recently announced a change in how the app will be used.

  • A new marketing campaign from Visit Fort Worth is called "The Unexpected City"—and a very unexpected voice is at the heart of it: legendary Hollywood actor Jimmy Stewart. Stewart passed away in Beverly Hills back in 1997. So how could a 2023 ad campaign snag the voice of an actor who's been gone for decades? Well, doggone it, hold your horses and you'll find out.