For Lee Ann Lipka, the stars seemed to align.
The Lafayette, Louisiana native fell in love with North Texas long before moving in June 2023.
She spent half her time in Dallas for work, but traveling back and forth was exhausting the single mother. She also wanted a variety of educational opportunities for her young son. When Lipka was offered a new full-time job in Dallas, she jumped at the chance.
“It was truly magical,” said Lipka, 36, vice president of corporate development for B&H Engineers.
Lipka is part of a booming trend that will see Dallas-Fort Worth lead all metropolitan areas in population growth in 2023, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Over the past year, D-FW has grown to the size of a large suburb, adding more than 152,000 new residents.
One year of population growth is equivalent to adding one Mesquite-sized city to the area. This built on the expansion that saw D-FW's population surpass her 8 million mark in early 2023.
D-FW's population now stands at 8.1 million, according to estimates released Thursday showing the nation's demographic changes in 2023 for the first time.
The Houston metropolitan area fell far short of D-FW in attracting new residents. During the same period, the population increased by more than 139,000 people, and Bayou City's population increased to 7.5 million people.
Both Texas cities surpassed the third-place metro Atlanta area, which added just over 68,000 new residents last year.
The Austin metropolitan area added just over 50,000 people to rank seventh. The San Antonio area ranked ninth with 48,071 new residents.
Texas counties also accounted for eight of the top 10 in terms of new residents, with Harris County leading the way with 53,000 new residents. Collin County's population increased by more than 36,300 people. Denton and Tarrant counties each added more than 27,000 new residents.
Denton County's population exceeds the 1 million mark for the first time.
New census data provides perspective on where people are leaving and going, based on net migration (people moving in minus people moving out) and changes in births and deaths. There is. The latest racial and ethnic population estimates are expected to be released in June.
Harris, Dallas, and Tarrant counties all had more births than deaths, making them among the top counties in the nation.
Overall, Dallas County's population grew by approximately 5,000 people from 2022 to 2023, to 2,606,358. Dallas' growth is primarily due to in-migration, which outnumbers out-migration of residents.
“Dallas is actually kind of an anomaly,” said Lloyd Potter, state demographer at the Texas Population Center. “Dallas County is still growing, but it is growing thanks to international migration and natural increase.” [births] It's more than domestic migration. ”
In terms of population growth, Kaufman and Rockwall counties east of Dallas led the nation among counties with populations of 20,000 or more. Kaufman County's growth rate was 7.6% and Rockwall County's 6.5%.
Loren Bowers, director of the Census Bureau's Population Projection Division, said migration patterns were particularly pronounced last year at the county level.
“Regions that experienced high domestic outflows during the pandemic, such as the Midwest and Northeast, are now seeing more counties experiencing population growth,” Bowers said in a statement. “Meanwhile, county population growth is slowing in western states such as Arizona and Idaho.”
For the first time since 2020, more counties in the Midwest gained population than lost. But Sunbelt counties continue to shine, with two-thirds of counties recording population growth.
Although the Census Bureau does not estimate the causes of population changes, North Texas is one of the nation's leading regions in attracting business.
In 2023, D-FW recorded the most business relocation or expansion projects, with 452, second only to Chicago. Site selection Annual tally of magazines. Employers in D-FW added just under 75,000 jobs to their payrolls last year, based on new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In the five-year period from 2018 to 2023, Texas saw 209 corporate headquarters relocations, more than any other state in the nation. Of those, 66 landed in Austin, 32 in D-FW and 25 in Houston, according to tracking by Dallas-based commercial real estate firm CBRE.
Potter said the growth in North Texas, particularly in Collin and Denton counties, has coincided with job opportunities created by relocating businesses, and many positions require advanced educational backgrounds.
“People are willing to move to other parts of Texas, metropolitan areas and other parts of Texas for those jobs,” Potter said.
The region has emerged as a mecca for financial services companies and employment over the past decade. The region was second only to New York in job openings from 2021 to 2023, according to a study by commercial real estate services firm JLL.
D-FW had a total of 64,191 job openings over the two-year period, and New York had 129,072 job openings. Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are all building new campuses or expanding their workforces in North Texas.
There is no sign that the influx of new residents will slow down.
When Evan Young moved to Forney earlier this year, he was drawn to the area's size.
The 25-year-old and his wife, Kari, left their small town in western Massachusetts to help a friend set up a field office for a solar company.
“We moved here because there are a lot of people here,” Young said. “My job is door-to-door, so more people I can talk to means I can support my family better.”
