The area around the Texas capital saw the fastest population growth in the U.S. in 2013, according to Census Bureau estimates released Thursday. San Marcos, Cedar Park and Georgetown – all located within 30 miles of Austin – ranked among the top 10 of the most rapidly growing U.S. cities with populations of 50,000 or more.

Seven of the 15 most rapidly growing cities were in Texas, the figures show, and Austin itself gained more people (nearly 21,000) than any other city with fewer than 1 million residents. Also of note: All 15 of the nation’s fastest-growing municipalities were located in the South or West.



Katherine Peralta for USNWR; Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Home to the University of Texas at Austin and state government offices, Austin is also known as the "Live Music Capital of the World" and had a population of 885,400 as of July 1, 2013, according to the Census Bureau. As a whole, Texas had the most month-to-month job gains than any other state in April and had a jobless rate of 5.2 percent, much lower than the national rate of 6.3 percent.

There's a lifestyle draw to Austin, State Demographer Lloyd Potter says: "It’s right next to the hill country and it’s certainly seen as being a more progressive place in Texas."

Austin is also ranked the No. 1 market for millennials – Americans born after 1980 – in terms of concentration, which is 1.2 times the national average, according to a recent Nielsen study. The city is a top spot for the “Creative Class,” which includes “workers, intellectuals and artists who … will help drive future economic growth,” according to the study. The slogan "Keep Austin Weird" has come to embody the city's offbeat culture, including its vibrant music and restaurant scenes.

The Lone Star State's capital, however, is struggling to maintain core infrastructure elements like highways, and property values within the city have gone up "rather dramatically," Potter says, which prompts outward migration to smaller nearby towns that are more affordable and offer lots of job opportunities.

"Certainly north of Austin, there’s been significant growth in the high-tech industry around the Georgetown area," he says, citing Dell Inc., which is headquartered in Round Rock. Many Texans commute from the south of Austin into the city, and Potter says the area around San Marcos, for example, has seen a fair amount of its own business growth recently, notably in manufacturing.

The population increase in Odessa, another Texas city on the fastest-growing list, stems from the oil industry.

"In Midland and Odessa, they’ve had a dramatic increase in oil extraction from fracking," he says. "If you have a small population but, relatively speaking, a large number of people moving there because of economic opportunity, it causes relatively dramatic [growth rate] increases."