r/dataisbeautiful • u/TA-MajestyPalm • 4d ago

OC [OC] Post-Pandemic Population Growth Trends, by US Metro Area (2022->2024)

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Graphic by me, created in Excel. All data from US Census here: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-total-metro-and-micro-statistical-areas.html

I've created similar graphics in the past, but usually from 2020-2024. This is not the best time frame as it combines the abnormal covid years with post pandemic movement.

This time frame (2022-2024) shows the most current and ongoing population trends of the last 2 years.

I also wanted to better categorize the cities into broad cultural regions vs the arbitrary geographic census regions.

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u/ColonialTransitFan95 3d ago

I saw an interesting theory that places like Texas are growing because they still have space to sprawl out. CA has better weather so it growth happened much early and its run out of space to sprawl. Texas is hot and AC wasn’t as common back in the day (or at all), so it didn’t get a boom tell after it became everywhere (in the US). At some point you run out of places to sprawl (run out of land or simply you are just so far from the city the commute isn’t really possible). Be interesting to see if this plays out for the southeast.

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u/zeroonetw 3d ago

With enough sprawl density naturally forms. The Texas cities’ cores are rapidly densifying. Also multimodal commercial centers have formed as well so you end up with a diffused network. Commute times are better in the Texas cities than the big coastal ones.

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u/ColonialTransitFan95 3d ago

Your commutes will just if bad if not worse if you only build the hyper car centric sprawl Texas is known for. And Texas commutes sucks just as bad as coastal cities. And were is Texas building density, it’s mostly McMansions.

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u/zeroonetw 3d ago

https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST1Y2022.S0801?q=average%20commute%20times&g=010XX00US$31000M1

You’re free to peruse the commute data.

Dense neighborhoods in city cores:

Uptown, Dallas

Rice Military, Houston

Downtown/UT area, Austin

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u/ColonialTransitFan95 3d ago

Yes but most of Dallas isn’t uptown, it’s single family sprawl. Texas sprawl hasn’t gone as far as coastal city’s so people are come from closer in. Your post history indicates you have some sort of bias towards Texas.

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u/zeroonetw 3d ago

Did you read my initial comment?

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u/ColonialTransitFan95 3d ago

Yes, but I disagree that Texas is building higher density. Pre war neighborhoods are gonna be fine. But your new stuff is mostly sprawl unless it’s new stuff in those pre war neighborhoods. Plus Texas is very anti transit and car dependency doesn’t help with housing affordability.

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u/zeroonetw 3d ago

lol there is nothing pre-war about those old neighborhoods anymore. If you want to stick your head in the sand that’s fine. I suggest you drop your google street view in any of these areas.

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u/ColonialTransitFan95 3d ago

I’ve done better, I visited them in real life and talked to planners and locals in the area (Dallas). It’s old pre war neighborhoods (uptown) with new construction starting the 80s. Most of new housing stock is single family homes outside of the few neighborhoods built before the 50s. I notice you didn’t comment about Texas lack of support for transit.

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u/zeroonetw 3d ago

I guess I need a little help understanding your point. You’ve been to the cores of these cities. You’ve seen the new high density construction occur in the cores of these cities. You’ve seen how much the density has increased in the cores of these cities… but yet conclude density is not happening?

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u/tu-vens-tu-vens 3d ago

It’s pretty undeniable that Texas is building higher density.

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u/ColonialTransitFan95 3d ago

I didn’t say they aren’t building any higher density, just only in a hand full of neighborhoods. The stuff downtown and directly next to it is ok, the issue is the density drops off a cliff a few miles outside of downtown. Most of the new housing stock in Texas is suburban sprawl. Also again no one has addressed the issue with Texas state government view on things like transit. My argument is that the growth in the sunbelt isn’t because these areas have to space for the sprawl now but won’t in the future.

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u/Roupert4 3d ago

Texas has business friendly policies and looser building requirements. It's much cheaper to build in Texas for businesses and residential. Reddit hates to hear it but it's just a reality.

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u/ColonialTransitFan95 3d ago

The infrastructure in Texas is shit and again, they will run out of space to build and will most likely have the same housing issues as CA. They also don’t like to fund transit or allow anything that isn’t sprawl. People act like because it’s “cheap” means it’s good. It’s not.

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u/Roupert4 2d ago

Yep this is the typical reddit take on Texas. But it's not what the rest of the country thinks.

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u/ColonialTransitFan95 2d ago

The rest of the country isn’t moving to Texas. People move to where they can get cheap housing. Plus pretty much everyone I know that’s in Texas or moved to there wants out.