Frisco, for the first time in at least five years, topped the U.S. Census bureau's list of fastest-growing big cities in the nation, adding an average of 37 new residents every day for a population jump of 8.2 percent, data released Thursday showed.

The booming Dallas suburb also landed in the ninth spot in terms of the raw number of residents it added over the year that ended in July -- an impressive feat for a city that, at 177,286 people, is still relatively small.

But while experts said Frisco’s strong showing is merely more of the same from a northern corridor that has been on an economic tear, observers of Texas’ growth say that the latest numbers included surprising signs of momentum in a part of the metroplex that often plays second fiddle.

“Fort Worth, when you look recently, has been growing steadily and now it seems like it’s popped up a little bit,” said state demographer Lloyd Potter. “I wouldn’t say it was in the doldrums, but it wasn’t growing at the same pace as some of the other areas in Texas.”

Cowtown added 18,664 residents over the year, the fourth most of any city in the country -- following close behind Dallas, which added 18,935.

That was enough, the data showed, to push Fort Worth past Indianapolis as the nation’s 15th largest city.

The 14 largest cities in the country didn’t change from the prior year.

Which means that Texas surpassed California’s share of the top 15 list, with five cities making the cut. California -- which has about 11 million more residents than the Lone Star State overall -- had four.

Experts have said that the Lone Star State’s routine dominance in just about any kind of population or economic growth measure can be traced back to a few factors.

Cities that initially had lots of open land ripe for development, like Frisco, have become economic development powerhouses, aggressively pursuing high-paying corporate jobs and investment using a variety of tax breaks and grants.

Those jobs, in turn, lure residents from more expensive coastal cities.

Meanwhile, the state’s urban core cities, like Dallas and Houston, boast large, diverse immigrant populations, which also fuel economic and population growth.

But the surge in Fort Worth and in San Antonio -- with 24,208 new residents, it grew by the largest number of any city in the country -- hints at a subtle shift, said Pia Orrenius, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

“Dallas is getting more and more expensive,” she said. “That is going to play in Fort Worth’s favor going forward.”

As development has marched north from Dallas, cities heading toward Oklahoma have grown quickly. McKinney and Flower Mound were both among the fastest-growing cities with populations over 50,000. (McKinney’s overall population is actually larger than Frisco’s: It has 181,330 residents, according to the data.)

However, Orrenius said, there are limits to that kind of one-directional growth.

“I think there’s plenty of room and [cities like Frisco and McKinney] will continue to grow quickly,” she said.

But this is just how a functioning economy works: As the supply of land closer within reasonable commuting distance from jobs shrinks, housing that’s there gets more expensive. And so, people go further away if they can’t afford those closer in homes.

“As cost pressures rise, and frankly, as traffic rises, it makes sense that we expand west,” she said.

The tricky part has been funnelling some of the spillover growth from northern Dallas into southern Dallas, she said.

Although San Antonio's recent moves to annex land may have added slightly to the city's population growth, Orrenius said, a similar phenomenon could be playing out there, as Austin becomes inaccessible to more people and they head for cheaper suburbs.

New Braunfels, north of San Antonio, was the nation’s second fastest growing city, and part of what economists describe as an increasingly combined Austin-San Antonio mega-metro.

Still, Orrenius chalked up Fort Worth’s newfound sheen to more than just relatively cheap housing.

The city in recent years has benefitted from having a high concentration of defense industry, transportation and energy-related manufacturing jobs than most cities.

After the 2014 oil bust, job growth in Fort Worth and Houston slowed. But recently, manufacturing has been on a growth streak and increased production in Texas' red hot Permian Basin has helped energy rebound.

And though the effort was officially launched after the time period this data measured, Fort Worth has been working to better compete with Dallas' northern suburbs for sustainable, high-paying corporate jobs.

Last month, the Fort Worth-Arlington division of the metro area had a lower unemployment rate than the Dallas-Plano-Irving one -- not by much, but it was still unusual.

“Maybe the tide is turning for Fort Worth,” Orrenius said.