The U.S. population growth rate hit its lowest level since the Great Depression, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. Over the past decade, the Great Recession and COVID-19 pandemic slowed immigration as well as caused many Americans to hold off on having kids.

Population growth did not stagnate everywhere in the U.S., however. In fact, in nearly every state at least one major metro area reported a faster population growth rate from 2010 to 2020 than the comparable national rate of 6.7%.

The fastest growing city in Kentucky is the Bowling Green metro area. Its population grew by 14.0% from 2010 to 2020 to 180,751 residents. During that same time, the population of Kentucky grew by 3.2%.

Economic opportunity often drives population changes, and most of the fastest growing cities in each state have relatively high incomes compared to the state as a whole. But this is not the case in Kentucky. The Bowling Green metro area has a median annual household income of $51,198, slightly below Kentucky’s median of $52,295.

To determine the fastest growing city in each state, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed population data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Population and Housing Estimates Program. Metropolitan areas were ranked based on total population change from 2010 to 2020. Data on the components of population growth — births, deaths, international and domestic migration — also came from the PEP program. Supplemental data on employment used to calculate employment growth from 2010 to 2020 came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Seasonally adjusted data on the May 2021 unemployment rate also came from the BLS. Data on median household income came from the Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey and are one-year estimates. This is the fastest growing city in each state.

 

State	MSA	Total population change, 2010 to 2020 (%)	Total population, 2020	State population change, 2010 to 2020 (%)
Alabama	Daphne-Fairhope-Foley	25.8	229,287	3.0
Alaska	Anchorage	4.2	397,308	2.9
Arizona	Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler	20.7	5,059,909	16.1
Arkansas	Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers	24.7	548,634	3.9
California	Stockton	12.1	767,967	5.7
Colorado	Greeley	32.1	333,983	15.5
Connecticut	Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk	2.8	942,426	-0.5
Delaware	Dover	13.1	183,643	9.9
Florida	The Villages	48.8	139,018	15.6
Georgia	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta	15.2	6,087,762	10.5
Hawaii	Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina	8.4	167,902	3.4
Idaho	Boise City	24.9	770,353	16.5
Illinois	Champaign-Urbana	3.6	225,547	-1.9
Indiana	Lafayette-West Lafayette	10.9	233,278	4.2
Iowa	Des Moines-West Des Moines	16.7	707,915	3.8
Kansas	Lawrence	10.6	122,530	2.1
Kentucky	Bowling Green	14.0	180,751	3.2
Louisiana	Hammond	13.0	136,765	2.5
Maine	Portland-South Portland	5.7	543,221	1.6
Maryland	Salisbury	13.3	423,481	4.9
Massachusetts	Boston-Cambridge-Newton	7.2	4,878,211	5.3
Michigan	Grand Rapids-Kentwood	8.8	1,081,372	0.8
Minnesota	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington	9.7	3,657,477	6.7
Mississippi	Gulfport-Biloxi	7.8	418,963	0.0
Missouri	Columbia	10.3	210,094	2.7
Montana	Missoula	11.3	121,630	9.2
Nebraska	Lincoln	11.8	337,836	6.1
Nevada	Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise	18.7	2,315,963	16.2
New Hampshire	Manchester-Nashua	4.5	418,735	3.8
New Jersey	Trenton-Princeton	-0.1	367,239	1.0
New Mexico	Las Cruces	5.8	221,262	2.3
New York	Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown	1.2	678,527	-0.2
North Carolina	Raleigh-Cary	25.6	1,420,376	11.2
North Dakota	Fargo	19.1	248,594	13.8
Ohio	Columbus	12.5	2,138,946	1.4
Oklahoma	Oklahoma City	13.8	1,425,375	6.1
Oregon	Bend	27.9	201,769	10.7
Pennsylvania	Lebanon	6.0	141,663	0.6
Rhode Island	Providence-Warwick	1.4	1,623,890	0.4
South Carolina	Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach	36.6	514,488	12.8
South Dakota	Sioux Falls	19.8	273,566	9.6
Tennessee	Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin	19.1	1,961,232	8.5
Texas	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown	33.7	2,295,303	16.8
Utah	St. George	33.9	184,913	17.6
Vermont	Burlington-South Burlington	4.7	221,160	-0.4
Virginia	Winchester	10.6	142,009	7.4
Washington	Kennewick-Richland	19.8	303,501	14.4
West Virginia	Morgantown	8.1	140,199	-3.7
Wisconsin	Madison	10.7	670,447	2.6
Wyoming	Cheyenne	9.5	100,595	3.3