Around Four-Fifths of All U.S. Metro Areas Grew Between 2010 and 2020

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Population Change in Cities

All 10 of the largest incorporated places (cities) grew in the past decade (Table 1).

Four of the 10 largest incorporated places had 2020 populations of 2.0 million or more: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston. All of the 10 largest incorporated places had 2020 populations of 1.0 million or more, including 10th ranked San Jose, California, which crossed the 1.0 million person threshold between 2010 and 2020.

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State Population Change

As first reported in April (when the 2020 Census apportionment numbers were released), Texas experienced the largest numeric increase between 2010 and 2020, followed by Florida, California, Georgia and Washington (Figure 3, Table 2).

These five states accounted for nearly half of the total numeric population increase in the United States between 2010 and 2020.

Utah was the fastest-growing state, increasing by 18.4% between 2010 and 2020, followed by Idaho, Texas, North Dakota and Nevada, which each grew by 15.0% or more.

Overall, 13 states and the District of Columbia grew by 10.0% or greater. All are in the West or South regions, with the exception of North Dakota in the Midwest region. Massachusetts was the fastest-growing state in the Northeast at 7.4%.

California was the most populous state in 2020 (39.5 million), followed by Texas (29.1 million), Florida (21.5 million), New York (20.2 million) and Pennsylvania (13.0 million).

Overall, 10 states had 2020 populations of 10.0 million or greater, which together contain more than half of the U.S. population.

The populations of three states — West Virginia, Mississippi and Illinois — and Puerto Rico declined over the decade.

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National Population Change

The total population of the United States on April 1, 2020, was 331.4 million, an increase of 22.7 million from 2010.

Last decade’s 7.4% increase was lower than the previous decade’s 9.7% increase and was, in fact, the lowest since the 1930s (Figure 4).

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Paul Mackun is a geographer in the Census Bureau’s Population Division.

Joshua Comenetz is assistant chief of the Population Geography Staff in the Population Division.

Lindsay Spell is a geographer in the Population Division.

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