Aerial view of downtown Oklahoma City, looking north from Broadway and Main Street;. [Photo by Jim Beckel, The Oklahoman]

The Oklahoma City metro area continued a streak of population growth last year, gaining 11,274 people between the middle of 2016 and the middle of 2017, according to Census Bureau figures released Thursday.

"We also know that there's a lot of highly educated twenty-somethings inside that 11,000," Mayor Mick Cornett said. "We can tell by the job creators, the entrepreneurs and the new businesses that are being created. So, that's really exciting."

It was the seventh year in a row that the state's largest metropolitan area had a significant population increase. Nearly 1.4 million people now live in the area.

"It's good growth," Cornett said. "It's higher than our traditional average, if you look back at Oklahoma City through the decades. It's a good number."