DALLAS — Over the last year, Texas added 432,957 residents, pushing the state’s population to almost 28 million, U.S. Census Bureau data released this week shows.
That amounts to about 1,183 new Texans each day and the biggest population jump of any state in the country.
Florida was next, adding 367,525 residents from July 2015 to July 2016, followed by California, which added 256,077 people.
None of that is likely to surprise Texans, who have been hearing about the state’s skyrocketing population for years — not to mention seeing it in cranes dotting city skylines and the seemingly endless sprawl of neighborhoods sprouting on what was recently wide-open land.
Steve Murdock, a former head of the census and now director of Rice University’s Hobby Center for the Study of Texas, said the state has topped population growth lists since about the turn of the millennium — and he doesn’t expect that to change just yet.
“Nothing will last forever, but the best guess for tomorrow is what happens today,” he said. “And the best guess, after the last 16 years or so, is that Texas will probably lead population growth again next year.”
As of the 2000 census, Texas’ population was 21 million, about seven times the current population of Utah, the year’s fastest-growing state by percentage. Utah’s population crossed the 3 million threshold for the first time.
That amounts to about 1,183 new Texans each day and the biggest population jump of any state in the country.
Florida was next, adding 367,525 residents from July 2015 to July 2016, followed by California, which added 256,077 people.
None of that is likely to surprise Texans, who have been hearing about the state’s skyrocketing population for years — not to mention seeing it in cranes dotting city skylines and the seemingly endless sprawl of neighborhoods sprouting on what was recently wide-open land.
Steve Murdock, a former head of the census and now director of Rice University’s Hobby Center for the Study of Texas, said the state has topped population growth lists since about the turn of the millennium — and he doesn’t expect that to change just yet.
“Nothing will last forever, but the best guess for tomorrow is what happens today,” he said. “And the best guess, after the last 16 years or so, is that Texas will probably lead population growth again next year.”
As of the 2000 census, Texas’ population was 21 million, about seven times the current population of Utah, the year’s fastest-growing state by percentage. Utah’s population crossed the 3 million threshold for the first time.
