ARIZONA, USA — Phoenix is the fastest-growing large city in the U.S. according to the 2020 Census data released Thursday. The numbers make it the fifth most populated city in the nation.
The latest findings indicate that, in the last decade, 759,485 people moved to Arizona, resulting in more than 7 million people now residing in the state. That equates to 208 people moving to the Grand Canyon State a day, every day, for the last 10 years.
Data shows Buckeye grew faster than any other city in the country, growing up 80% in the last decade to about 90,000 people.
Census data is a snapshot of the population in the U.S. as of April 1, 2020. Its findings don’t reflect growth from the last 16 months, something that increases Buckeye’s announced results, said David Roderique, the city’s Deputy City Manager and Economic Development Director.
“Based on the new building permits and the housing that has come to the city, we actually believe we are at 105,000 people,” he said.
Other cities saw significant growth too. The City of Mesa officially crossed the 500,000 population mark. Queen Creek doubled its resident count from 26,000 to nearly 60,000, according to census data.
Overall, Maricopa County, Pinal County, Greenlee County and Yavapai County all grew at the same rate or faster than the state.
Growth rate:
Arizona: 11.9%
- Maricopa County: 15.9%
- Pinal County: 13.2%
- Greenlee County: 13.3%
- Yavapai County: 11.9%
Meanwhile, five Arizona rural counties saw a decrease in population. Chang said that is a similar national problem.
Decreased in population:
- La Paz County: -19.2%
- Apache County: -7.7%
- Cochise County: -4.5%
- Navajo County: -0.7%
- Gila County: -0.6%
Continuous growth
Phoenix reported the largest growth rate among the 10 most populist cities in the U.S. during the decennial count, which was not a surprising finding for Chang.
“Our economic development is probably the largest factor for our population growth,” Chang said. “Job growth played a big factor too.”
Housing units did not grow as fast as the population in the Grand Canyon State with an 8.3% growth rate and in Phoenix that explained house occupancy and competitive house market, Chang said.
As for the city of Buckeye, it’s expected to grow by about 100,000 people in the next decade, Roderique said. In part due to the city’s available land, which is the most than any other city in the Valley, he said.
“As other cities reach buildout and completely full, they are going to have to look to Buckeye for future growth because there won’t be land available but Buckeye,” Roderique said.
So far, Buckeye is only at about 5% buildout from its available land, according to Roderique. He said that when they are fully developed, the population is expected to reach 1.5 million people “essentially the size of Phoenix today.”
A more culturally diverse society
Total U.S. population grew at its slowest pace since the 1930s totaling 332.6 million people with a 7.4% growth rate.
Census data showed that the Caucasian population shrank for the first time since 1790, revealing the most extensive outlook of America’s racial and ethnic representation in a decade.
The White, non-Hispanic population is still the largest racial group in the U.S. but decreased by 8.8%.
The 2020 Census used two separate questions to calculate race and ethnicity.
One focused on Hispanic or Latino origin and one for race.
The number of Hispanic people identifying as multiracial increased 567%, while the number of Hispanic people identifying as solely white dramatically dropped.
In Arizona, the largest racial or ethnic group continues to be White with about 54% of the states’ population, but the 10-year-decade accounted for a drop of about 4%.
Nearly 31% of Arizona residents describe themselves as Hispanic.
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