Houston on Top

Houston just keeps on growing: Population gain is fastest in the nation

Is there a reason for all that Houston traffic? Lots of new people are in town.

It's no wonder that traffic has gotten worse. The Houston metro area has experienced the highest population gain in the nation, according to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Houston-Woodlands-Sugar Land area attracted 159,083 new residents from July 1, 2014 through July 1, 2015, bringing the total up to 6.6 million. With a 2.4 percent increase last year, Houston joins Austin and Orlando, Florida as the only three U.S. cities to rank in the top 20 for both overall population gain and growth rate.

Texas has added more new residents than any other state in the country, a whopping 490,000 new residents in that time, according to the report released Thursday. Together, the Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas-Fort Worth metro areas claimed more than 412,000 of those new Texans.

With a 3 percent population increase, Austin-Round Rock was the fastest-growing metro area in the state, and the seventh fastest in the nation. The area added 57,395 new residents — about 157 people per day. The population total is currently estimated at over 2 million, but the Austin region could reach 3 million people in just four short years.

A similar story played out in San Antonio-New Braunfels, which attracted another 51,285 residents. Combined, the Austin-San Antonio area added a total of 108,680 people. This massive influx of Central Texans adds to the speculation that the I-35 corridor could mimic the collision of our neighbors in North Texas.

The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington added 144,704 people from 2014 to 2015. A total population of 7.1 million means the Dallas-Fort Worth complex remains the most populous metro in Texas and fourth largest in the U.S.

Even Texas' tinier towns are seeing phenomenal population expansion. Three small metro areas were among the fastest growing in the nation: Midland (No. 4) and Odessa (No. 5) with a 3.3 percent increase, and College Station-Bryan (No. 15) with 2.6 percent. To give comparison, the No. 1 fastest growing metro area in the country is The Villages (a suburb of Orlando), which experienced a 4.3 percent increase in one year.

As we lead the country in population growth and gain, it seems everyone wants to be a Texan. But Texans also like their wide open spaces, so let's keep encouraging the masses to move to Orlando.

transportation trends reports texas

Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

undefined

Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”

Houston on Top

Houston just keeps on growing: Population gain is fastest in the nation

Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

CultureMap Emails Are AwesomeGet Houston intel delivered daily.

We will not share or sell your email address.

CultureMap Emails Are Awesome
Get Houston intel delivered daily.