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Purchasing needs to order more bunk beds.
Fort Worth, as expected, has officially scaled the heights of big citydom, joining the ranks of major American cities by surpassing a population of 1 million, according to U.S. Census figures released this week.
Don’t sweat it, Merle Haggard. Still plenty of places here to turn loose and be set free, but Fort Worth today is twice the size of Miami. Not My-AM-uh in the Panhandle, but the city in South Florida.
Fort Worth grew by 23,442 between July 2023 and July 2024 — the fifth-most among big cities — to reach a population of 1,008,106. Our father’s Cowtown remained 11th in order of population but only 1,727 behind No. 10 Jacksonville, Florida.
“It just reinforces the path we're on as a community and needing to be focused on how to be prepared for additional growth,” said Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker. “With all that comes a lot of responsibility. Everything that the city can control and focus on from public safety to infrastructure is just more relevant with surpassing a million people.”
Increased population figures are a win for economic development and the workforce pool companies are in search of. The generations-old rivals, Dallas and Fort Worth, will soon be the ninth and 10th largest cities in the U.S.
"The Dallas-Fort Worth region is now one of one,” said Robert Allen, CEO of the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership, of two cities within a metro each being more than 1 million in population. "We always knew we were special, but this puts us in an elite category.
“You've got more workforce opportunities, and that's very important as we continue to work to attract new business to Fort Worth. You need to win that talent story, and one of the ways you can do that is by continuing to show positive growth. So, continued positive growth for a city of our size is outstanding.”
Conversely, with the increased figures come some moaning and groaning for the gallery, many of them lifers who recall a simpler place.
“First of all, Fort Worth is really, really lucky to have distinct neighborhoods that people can choose to live in across all 350 square miles that really reflect the personality of that area of the city,” Parker said. “And we've continued to make sure that those neighborhoods continue to grow and thrive and make the right kind of investment. We have a sprawling city, but you're seeing development across all council districts, which I think is a healthy sign as well.
“And people are moving to Fort Worth for a reason. A lot of it is because of the type of city that we are and the way we're growing the right way. And in my experience, I think that folks that are moving here kind of fit that same fabric.”
Who couldn’t use more friends?
The trend away from the northeast continued, though cities in the region reversed declines in population in 2023.
“Cities of all sizes, in all regions, showed faster growth and larger gains than in 2023, except for small cities in the South, whose average population growth rate remained the same,” said Crystal Delbé, a statistician in the Census Bureau’s Population Division.
Twelve of the 15 cities with the largest numeric population gains between 2023 and 2024 were located in the South or the West, though New York City topped the list with an increase of 87,184 residents between 2023 and 2024.
Rounding out the top five gainers were: Houston (43,217); Los Angeles (31,276); San Antonio (23,945); and Fort Worth.
What are they selling in Princeton, Texas?
The suburb of Dallas was the fastest-growing city in 2024, increasing its population by nearly one-third in just one year and more than doubling it since 2020, from roughly 17,000 to 37,000.
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