Commentary

Where the Growth Is: Outside of Urban Areas

A new report from the Census Bureau shows that as much as the busybodies of the nation want everyone to live in an apartment above a store in some city, where people are moving to is the countryside. According to the report, “U.S. outlying counties grew faster than central counties, 13 percent compared with 7.8 percent.”

Hat tip to Wendell Cox for pointing out this report. He also points out that:

The report goes on to compare detailed results for the 12 metropolitan areas with more than 2,500,000 population that have outlying counties. In every case, the outlying counties grew faster than the central counties. On average, the outlying counties grew at 2.3 times the rate of the central counties (Figure 3).

  • In San Francisco, the outlying county growth was 25 times that of the central counties.
  • In New York, the outlying county growth was 10 times that of the central counties.
  • In Boston and Minneapolis-St. Paul, the outlying country growth was between four and five times the growth in the central counties.
  • In Baltimore, the outlying country growth was 3.5 times the growth in the central counties.
  • In St. Louis, Washington (DC) and Chicago, the country growth was between two and three times the growth in the central counties.