— The Triangle had some of the country's fastest-growing municipalities in the past decade, and North Carolina gained three more towns and cities with a population over 100,000 in the same period.

Statistics released Friday by the U.S. Census Bureau also show that Cary, Wilmington and High Point grew enough to join ranks with six other municipalities in North Carolina with at least 100,000 residents.

Those numbers show that from 2000 to 2009, Raleigh, Cary and Durham were among the fastest-growing of America's 276 municipalities with a population of over 100,000.

Raleigh's population grew by 40.7 percent, from 288,462 to 405,791. Cary's grew by 41.4 percent, from 96,598 to 136,600. Durham's grew 22 percent, 187,897 to 229,174.

That growth ranked Cary as no. 19, Raleigh as no. 20 and Durham as no. 44 among U.S. cities with a population of over 100,000.

Raleigh was the fastest-growing of the country's 50 largest cities. Behind it were Fort Worth, Atlanta, Charlotte and Miami. Charlotte had an estimated 709,441 residents in 2009, up 25 percent over the decade.

Four other North Carolina cities ranked among the top 100 fastest-growing cities with a population over 100,000 – High Point at no. 50, with 19.8 percent growth; Winston-Salem at no. 76, with 14.1 percent growth; Wilmington at no. 88, with 13.0 percent growth; and Greensboro at no. 95, with 12.1 percent.

Fayetteville was the only municipality with a population in North Carolina to lose residents over the decade. The city's population dropped by 2.5 percent, from 203,209 in 2000 to 198,061 in 2009.