Houston’s Harris County is now the third most populous county in the United States according to new data revealed by the U.S. Census Bureau, surpassing Maricopa County in Arizona.
The report published on March 13 revealed the accelerating rate in which US metro areas are growing, increasing at a rate of .9%. Between 2023 and 2024, metro area populations as a whole grew by 3.2 million or 1.1%.
Per the report Harris County in Houston was the county that experienced the largest growth in the country between July 2023 and July 2024, with a numeric growth of 105,852. Montgomery County in the Houston area also appeared on this list at number 9 with a numeric growth of 34,268.
The top 5 counties ranked by numeric growth between July 2023 and July 2024 include:
- Harris County, TX
- Miami-Dade County, FL
- Maricopa County, AZ
- Collin County, TX
- Clark County, NV
As stated, the report also revealed Harris County to be the third most populous city in the United States with 5,009,302 as of July 1, 2024.
The top 5 most populous counties in the country include:
- Los Angeles County, CA
- Cook County, IL
- Harris County, TX
- Maricopa, AZ
- San Diego County, CA
Elsewhere in Texas, Dallas County also appeared in the top 10 at no. 8. The Houston metro area, comprising of Houston, Pasadena, and The Woodlands, was the U.S. metro area with the second largest numeric growth just after New York, Newark, and Jersey metro area at no. 1. Just behind the Houston metropolitan at no. 3 was Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington metro area.
In contrast to many counties in the south seeing growth, counties in the south and midwest also saw a large decline. The top 5 counties by numeric decline including the following
- Shelby County, TN
- St. Louis city, MO
- Hinds County, MI
- Orleans Parish, LA
- Clayton Count, GA
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