Apparently the bubble hasn't burst, after all.

The breakneck growth of the Nashville metro area filled headlines over the past few years, but this March the tone changed.

News outlets, including this one, reported that Census data showed the region's expansion dropped below the 100 person-a-day mark, for the period between July 2016 and July 2017.

The 100-person figure had become a touchstone for groups celebrating the expansion, and those criticizing declining affordability, increased traffic congestion and other growing pains.

More:Franklin was the eighth-fastest growing city in U.S. in 2017

On Thursday, the Census Bureau released its year-end numbers for 2017. Its shows that the Metro area, which includes Murfreesboro and Franklin, grew by 106 people a day between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017. The growth accounts for births, deaths and migration.

In 2016, the metro area had an estimated 1,865,535 people, and in 2017 it had 1,904,226 people.

Besides the different time frames, there may be a couple reasons the figures differ. The March numbers were population estimates, based on Census growth models. The latest estimates are from the American Community Survey, which sends questionnaires to households and then extrapolates to larger geographic areas.

Also, the American Community Survey data has a margin of error of plus or minus roughly 2,000 people. That means, theoretically, the population actually could have grown at a rate slower than 100 people.

Either way, the Nashville region isn't showing definitive signs of a slow-down.

More:The costs of growth and change in Nashville

Reach Mike Reicher at 615-259-8228, at mreicher@tennessean.com, and on Twitter @mreicher.