The One Minute Geographer: The Remarkable Concentration of Population Growth

The 18 metro areas that had half of US population growth from 2010–2020. Map by the author using pinmaps.net

We’ve looked at which states and metropolitan areas gained the most people in previous posts. But here are some remarkable overall take-aways to be aware of, most related to the increasing concentration of population and population growth.

Total US population, now about 331.5 million, grew by 22.7 million or 7.4% between the 2010 and 2020 censuses.

HALF of that growth (well, 48.6%) took place in just five states: Texas, California, New York, Georgia and Washington. Texas alone accounted for almost 18%.

HALF, actually MORE THAN HALF (55%), of the US population lives in the nine most populous states. Those states are California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia and North Carolina. That concentration has increased since 2010 when 51% lived in the nine most populous states. (The list for the two censuses is the same except that North Carolina displaced Michigan.)

ALL of the nation’s population growth can be attributed to the 384 metropolitan statistical areas. Metro areas grew 8.7%, a higher rate than the overall growth rate of 7.4%, so the proportion of US population that lives in these metro areas increased from 85% to 86%.