Population Growth Trends Return to Pre-Recession Norms

Jed Kolko breaks the news of the latest population figures for 2015, as released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau. The big winners, according to Kolko's analysis: the suburbs and the Sunbelt.

Here's how Kolko summarizes the latest population data:

After volatile swings in growth patterns during last decade’s housing bubble and bust, long-term trends are reasserting themselves. Population is growing faster in the South and West than in the Northeast and Midwest, and faster in suburban areas than in urban counties; both of these trends accelerated in 2015.

Kolko provides lists of the fastest growing metro areas, the fastest growing large metro areas, and a few other lists, including lists of metro areas with the steepest population declines. Kolko also shares three trends as takeaways from the data, with more detail provided in the article:

1. An accelerating shift of population toward the Sunbelt.
2. A recent slowdown in population in urban counties.
3. Metropolitan areas with at least one million people grew faster than midsize and smaller metros.

An article by Laura Kusisto for the Wall Street Journal, which follows on Kolko's reporting, argues that the U.S. Census data supports the thesis that the housing boom and bust of the last decade "merely created a temporary disruption" in the way Americans live.