More people moved to Maricopa County than any other county in the nation last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates released Thursday.

This is thethird year in a row that the county led in growth.

Maricopa County added 81,244 people between July 2017 and July 2018. That's up from 74,000 people during that same time period the year before.

Maricopa County's growth helped it maintain its rank as the fourth most populous county in the country with 4,410,824 residents.

Clark County in Nevada was second in growth, adding 48,337 people. All of the top-10, largest-gaining counties were in the West or South.

MORE:How did Maricopa County get so big? Valley 101 digs in

The Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale metropolitan area was the second highest among metropolitan areas in numeric growth, with 96,268 people moving to the area. That's up from 89,000 people last year.

That puts the metropolitan area at a population of 4,857,962. The metro area includes part of Pinal County, which is why the population is larger than the county's.

The only metropolitan area that added more people last year was the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area in Texas, which added 131,767 people.

Although Maricopa County led in numeric growth, it didn't even crack the top 10 in population percentage growth. Williams County in North Dakota led in percentage growth, followed by Comal and Kaufman counties in Texas.