Fast-Growing Counties in Florida and Texas Lead Nation in Population Growth

You might not think population increases have much do with electrical market potential. But there’s actually a direct correlation between a market area’s population growth and residential construction, and homebuilding feeds the construction of strip shopping centers and other stores, new schools and hospitals, and other commercial and institutional construction. The U.S. Census Bureau offers annual population data at the state, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and county level at www.census.gov. The chart on page 2 shows the 50 U.S. counties with the highest net migration numbers from 2018 to 2019 — the number of residents who moved into a county. As you will see in the chart, Florida with 16 counties, and Texas with 12 counties, dominate the list. North Carolina (4); Arizona and Colorado and Washington (3); and California, Georgia and Nevada (2) were the other states with multiple counties ranked. When you see where some of these counties are located, it becomes quickly apparent that several MSAs saw some amazing growth in just one year. Leading the list is the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler MSA, where the growth in Maricopa County (83,011 new residents) and Pinal County (15,983 new residents) combined for 98,994 new residents from 2018 to 2019. The Dallas-Forth Worth-Arlington MSA was also the beneficiary of rapid growth in four counties — Collin County (30,423); Denton County (28,466); Tarrant County (21,069); and Kaufman County (7,875). It added up to 87,233 new residents. The other MSA that saw a huge surge in new residents was Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV, which gained 40,600 new residents from 2018-2019, all from new residents in Clark County.