John Boekweg moved from Salt Lake City to San Antonio last fall when the accounting firm he works for expanded operations into the Alamo City. His wife and eight of his children joined him here in late December.

So far, they are thoroughly enjoying the city they now call home.

“It just seems like there’s a lot more happening here for families,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ll ever get through it all. … We’re just really impressed.”

His children enjoy visiting Six Flags Fiesta Texas, but Boekweg, 49, said he also enjoys the friendly people and mild winters of San Antonio.

“My family has integrated really well,” he said. “It’s just a great community.”

S.A. Growth: Is the Alamo City prepared for the next million people?

Boekweg’s relocation is indicative of a larger trend happening in San Antonio. The city is growing — so much that it topped the national list for largest raw numeric growth in population among all U.S. cities of 50,000 residents or more, data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau shows.

San Antonio gained 24,208 residents between July 1, 2016, and July 1, 2017, annual population estimates just released by the federal agency show. That amounts to an average of 66 people per day, the Census Bureau said.

The surge pushed the city’s population above 1.5 million for the first time. That marks an increase of almost 185,000 people in the city limits since the 2010 census.

San Antonio remains the seventh-largest city in the country. Its latest population estimate is 1,511,946.

The growth spurt recorded from 2016 to 2017 outnumbered strong gains measured in Phoenix, Dallas, Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta and Austin, the latest census data shows.

San Antonio’s top ranking might prompt others to hold the city in a different regard than in years past, some said.

“I think in some ways, it will potentially begin to help others in the country see that San Antonio isn’t a sleepy little city in South Texas,” Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter said. “It’s growing more than any other city in the country.

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“Even though it’s been the seventh-largest (city) for some time, when you tell people that, they’re like, ‘Oh, really?’ So in some ways, this may kind of help put an exclamation point on that and help people see that San Antonio is a powerhouse city.”

By contrast, growth in Houston, which just a few years ago seemed poised to take over Chicago’s position as the third-largest city in the U.S., has hit a snag with fewer and fewer people moving there.

Houston added just over 8,000 residents, placing it seventh in growth among other Texas cities like Austin, Fort Worth, Dallas and San Antonio.

For five consecutive years from 2011 to 2015, Houston remained in the top three cities that had added the most people. But now the Bayou City — known for its sprawl and elastic economy — has fallen behind a trend that began in 2016 when Houston first showed signs of slowing down. The city recorded four consecutive years of averaging more than 30,000 new residents between 2011 and 2015.

Potter says the substantial change in Houston growth is perplexing.

No demographic breakdown is available for the city population data just released, so there’s no way to know the ages, races, ethnicities or genders of San Antonio’s or Houston’s newest residents.

While some of San Antonio’s growth occurred because people moved here, some of it can also be attributed to births outnumbering deaths, Potter said.

Potter noted that when Bexar County gained 30,831 new residents during the same one-year period, nearly half of that number — 48 percent — was due to births exceeding deaths here, while the rest — 52 percent — came from people moving here.

That granular level of detail isn’t available in the latest data for San Antonio. But the breakdown of what’s driving the city’s population growth probably mirrors the migration and birth patterns seen in the county’s numbers, said Potter, a demography professor and director of the Texas State Data Center at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Read more: Census citizenship question draws fire

Boekweg called San Antonio’s top ranking “not at all surprising,” noting that’s why his employer, Haynie & Co., opted to expand into this market in November.

“We did know that it was booming down here,” said Boekweg, a partner for the accounting firm. “And this was the time to get into it.”

Amado “Sonny” Espinoza, 70, also wasn’t startled by the data. He and his wife lived in Roswell, New Mexico for 42 years, but moved to San Antonio late last year to be close to their son and baby granddaughter.

“I think the biggest thing that I’m sort of worried about is the infrastructure not keeping up with the growth,” said Espinoza, a career agent with New York Life. “It is a nightmare to think about.”

He pointed to projections that an additional 1.1 million people will move into Bexar County by 2040.

“How in the world are we going to handle that?” Espinoza asked.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the latest census numbers show why the city must act to accommodate its surging population and “ensure that we have a quality city in which existing residents and new ones can thrive in.”

That includes fundamentals, such as transportation planning, housing, water supply, energy and basic services, he said.

“This pace of growth is a key reason for the rising demand (for) affordable housing,” Nirenberg said. “Increased demand for housing is driving pricing up. Inventories are being stretched. And San Antonio must act without delay to address the need for more supply at affordable prices if our workforce is going to find a place of value to live in.”

While San Antonio faces challenges with housing and transportation, it hasn’t yet reached a crisis point with either of those issues unlike some other cities, Nirenberg said. San Antonio has the advantage of addressing both issues ahead of time, he said.

Home sales in San Antonio also have risen along with city’s population.

Last year, 13,363 homes were sold inside the city limits compared to 12,792 in 2016, according to data provided by the San Antonio Board of Realtors. Each quarter in 2017 consistently showed home sales were up compared to the same period in 2016.

Sales of newly constructed single-family homes also have been trending upward. Last year, 1,121 newly constructed houses were sold inside San Antonio’s city limits, compared to 802 sold in 2016, SABOR’s data showed.

Brandon Davis, 26, a CVS Pharmacy supervisor, said he moved back to San Antonio in August 2016 after living here more than a decade ago. He relocated here from the Dallas-Fort Worth area and previously had lived in multiple cities around the country.

“I moved across the country, I came back here and I was just stunned at how much growth” has occurred, Davis said of San Antonio. “It isn’t what it was 20 years ago, where everything was just slowly growing.”

He quickly lists what he likes about San Antonio: “It’s a slower pace of living — there’s not a lot of traffic. You don’t have to deal with the tolls. It’s not as hectic or chaotic like Dallas, where it takes you almost an hour to get from one city to the other. Here … everything feels so close to home.”

Davis also pointed to San Antonio’s lower cost of living, noting his move here was a long-term investment of sorts.

“Once I decide to have a family, I thought this town would probably be a better bang for my buck than being up in Dallas,” he said.

John Billings, 71, a retiree who moved to San Antonio in 2015 from the Kansas City area after the death of his wife, said he enjoys San Antonio’s friendly people, the city’s diversity and its many social amenities. He’s preparing to move to Wisconsin this summer, but said he will continue to spend his winters here.

“I would have assumed San Antonio is a fast-growing area because I’m familiar with the housing market,” Billings said. “Prices have gone sky high. And that’s the result of people coming in — supply and demand.

“I never dreamed I would ever pay this much for an apartment,” Billings said of the place he rents on the central North Side.

City officials have been preparing for the large growth that is expected to continue occurring.

“The SA Tomorrow comprehensive plan addresses how to grow throughout the city while preserving the unique character that makes San Antonio such a special place,” City Manager Sheryl Sculley said.

Peggy O’Hare is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | pohare@express-news.net | @Peggy_OHare