114,000 more people: Seattle now decade’s fastest-growing big city in all of U.S.
Seattle has its critics. You’ve probably heard some fed-up folks grumbling about leaving the city — and now some businesses, too, in the fallout from our controversial new head tax on large companies.
But say what you will about Seattle, you can’t say that people don’t want to live here.
The U.S. Census Bureau released new population figures for U.S. cities on Thursday, and they show that Seattle has toppled Austin, Texas, to become the nation’s fastest-growing big city this decade.
Seattle moved into the top spot after registering yet another year of remarkable growth in 2017. The city’s population hit an estimated 725,000, gaining 17,500 people from July 1, 2016, to July 1, 2017. Our growth rate in that period — 2.5 percent — was second only to Atlanta among the 50 largest U.S. cities.
Seattle has now been ranked in the top 4 for growth among major cities for five consecutive years — quite an impressive run.
Add up all the population gains since 2010 and Seattle has grown by a staggering 18.7 percent, which ranks as the fastest rate of growth among the 50 largest U.S. cities. The Texas capital, which has seen growth cool down a bit recently, falls to second place.
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