Despite the economic slowdown caused by declining oil prices, metro Houston again added more people to its overall population last year than any other metropolitan area in the nation, according to Census figures released yesterday.
Although metro Houston is home to 2% of the nation’s population, the region accounted for 6% of the nation’s population growth.
Metro Houston added 159,000 people, bringing its total to more than 6.6 million.
Dallas was again a close second, with all other metro areas lagging far behind.
Overall, metro Houston, metros in Texas, and metros in the Sunbelt accounted for an enormous portion of the entire nation’s population growth between July 2014 and July 2015, according to the Census figures.
Together, the four major Texas metros added almost 400,000 people. Although these four metros make up 5.6% of the nation’s population, they accounted for 16.4% of the population growth.
The 20 metros in the Sunbelt (as defined by the Kinder Institute) with the largest population increases accounted for almost half the population growth in the nation. Although these 20 metros account for approximately 22% of the nation’s population, they accounted for 46% of of the nation’s population growth last year.
The Kinder Institute defines the Sunbelt as that area below latitude 36-30 in the United States.