This Tiny North Dakota County Is the Fastest Growing in America

Economy

Published: April 19, 2019 8:41 am

Last Updated: January 6, 2020 5:24 am

There are 3,142 counties in America. Among these, only one grew over 50%, according to a recent Census survey. It is a small county in North Dakota with only about 35,000 residents.

The new Census report, which covers city and county growth from the 2010 Census dated April 1, 2010, until July 1, 2018, is titled “New Census Bureau Estimates Show Counties in South and West Lead Nation in Population Growth.” Leading the list is Williams County, North Dakota, which grew 57.8% to 35,350. To be on the top 10 list in terms of growth, a county had to grow over 34% and had to have a population over 20,000. Interestingly, no county in North Dakota is among the 25 best counties in America to live in.

Four of the top 10 counties with the most rapid growth were in Texas. Hays County ranked second on the list, up 41.7% to 222,631. Comal County was sixth, up 36.8% to 148,373. Kendall County ranked seventh, up 36.0% to 45,641. Fort Bend County came in 10th, up 34.7% to 787,858. Two counties among the top 10 were in Florida. Sumter County ranked fourth on the overall list, up 37.8% to 128,754, while Osceola County ranked fifth and was up 37% to 367,990. The balance of the top 10: Wasatch County, Utah, ranked third, up 41.3% to 33,240; Dallas County, Iowa, eighth, up 36.4% to 90,180; and Forsyth County, Georgia, ranked ninth and grew by 34.8% to 236,612.

The report also said that Williams County was the fast growing in the county by another measure. This was population growth between July 1, 2017, and July 1, 2018. Its population for the one-year period was up 5.9%. Census researchers commented: “Among counties with a population of 20,000 or more, Williams County, N.D., was the fastest-growing county by percentage, increasing by 5.9 percent between 2017 and 2018 (from 33,395 to 35,350). The rapid growth Williams County, N.D., experienced was due mainly to net domestic migration (1,471) in 2018. The county also grew between 2017 and 2018 by natural increase (427) and international migration (52).”

The study also ranked America’s 390 largest metro areas. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area added 131,767 people between July 1, 2017, and July 1, 2018. No other American city came close. The Dallas suburb of Highland Park also was recently listed as one of America’s 50 best cities to live in.

The total population of the Dallas metro area as of mid-2018 was 7,407,944, which ranked it fourth in population among all American cities. The three ahead of it were the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro with 19,979,477 people, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim with 13,291,486 and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin with 9,498,716. None of these three were on the Census list of the top 10 metros that added the most people.