This California city ranks fifth among fastest-growing in U.S.
A section of habited homes is seen at the planned community at River Islands in Lathrop, California Thursday, Mar. 4, 2021. (Stephen Lam/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
LATHROP, Calif. - While the South dominates the nation’s growth, the West also witnessed a population spurt from 2022 to 2023, with one California city ranked among the nation's fastest-growing cities, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Lathrop, in San Joaquin County, ranked fifth among the nation's fastest-growing cities with a population of 20,000 or more. Celina, Texas, topped the list, followed by Fulshear, Texas; Princeton, Texas; and Anna, Texas.
California's population grew for the first time since 2020
California’s population saw an increase, marking a reversal from three years of declines. Five Bay Area counties were among those that saw their population grow.
Lathrop, near the larger cities of Tracy and Manteca, saw its population increase by 13.6% in 2023, bringing its total population to 39,857, according to the Census Bureau.
Some of the cities with the greatest growth rates were in exurbs dozens of miles from a metro’s downtown core. They included places like Celina, Texas, located more than 40 miles north of downtown Dallas, and Fulshear, Texas, located more than 30 miles west of Houston. Rising housing costs and greater opportunities for remote work likely played roles in their popularity, according to the Census Bureau.
Top 15 fastest growing cities in U.S.
[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]Some of the cities with the greatest growth rates were in exurbs dozens of miles from a metro’s downtown core. Rising housing costs and greater opportunities for remote work likely played roles in their popularity, according to the Census Bureau.
Three of the largest cities in the U.S. that had been bleeding residents this decade staunched those departures somewhat. New York City, which has lost almost 550,000 residents this decade so far, saw a drop of only 77,000 residents last year, about three-fifths the numbers from the previous year.
Los Angeles lost only 1,800 people last year, following a decline in the 2020s of almost 78,000 residents. Chicago, which has lost almost 82,000 people this decade, only had a population drop of 8,200 residents last year.
And San Francisco, which has lost a greater share of residents this decade than any other big city — almost 7.5% — actually grew by more than 1,200 residents last year.
New York City with nearly 8.3 million people remained the nation’s largest city in population as of July 1, 2023. Los Angeles was second at close to 4 million residents, while Chicago was third at 2.7 million.
Houston at 2.3 million residents, Phoenix at 1.7 million, Philadelphia at 1.6 million, San Antonio, Texas, at 1.5 million, San Diego at 1.4 million, Dallas at 1.3 million and Jacksonville, Florida, at 986,000 round out the top 10 largest cities.
Corey Williams and Mike Scheider from the Associated Press contributed to this report.