Maricopa one of America’s fastest-growing cities

Maricopans seeing one residential project after another breaking ground will not be surprised to learn their city is one of the 10 fastest growing in the United States.

On Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau released estimates showing what many of us already knew – population growth is shifting nationally to the West and South.

From July 2020 to July 2021, Maricopa ranked as the eighth-fastest growing city in the nation on a percentage basis, with the city’s population rising 6.1% to a census bureau estimated total of 62,720.

“I love to see people wanting to move to Maricopa but with that growth comes challenges, Vice Mayor Vincent Manfredi said. “With every person that moves to Maricopa the need to address traffic concerns on SR 347 becomes more obvious to those in charge of those decisions. It makes our job as council members a little easier when we ask for help and can point to these stats.”

Five of the top 15 cities in population growth are in Arizona, with three lying at least partially in Pinal County. Queen Creek ranked third, growing 8.9% to 66,346, while Casa Grande was seventh with a population of 57,699, up 6.2%.

Buckeye and Goodyear, in Maricopa County, both climbed over the 100,000-population mark in the past year. Buckeye grew to 101,315, an increase of 8.6%, and Goodyear checked in at 101,733, up 5.4%.

Arizona was joined by Texas, Florida and Idaho as states with multiple cities in the top 15 in growth, with each having three cities on the list. Georgetown, Texas, a suburb of Austin which grew at a rate of 10.6% in the past year was ranked number one in growth. Arizona had five cities on the list, and Tennessee had one.

Texas had the first, second and fifth-fastest growing cities, with another Austin suburb, Leander, checking in at number two with a growth rate of 10.1% and New Braunfels, outside of San Antonio, fifth at 8.3%.

Phoenix and Buckeye also made the list of top cities in growth by number of residents. Phoenix came in at number two on the list, adding 13,224 residents over the past year, and Buckeye was seventh, adding 8,001.

Phoenix remains the nation’s fifth-largest city with a population estimated at 1,624,569, the Census Bureau said.

Vincent Manfredi is a co-owner of InMaricopa.