Frisco, other Dallas-area cities among fastest-growing in

07:10 AM CDT on Wednesday, June 23, 2010

By ERIC AASE+ / The Dallas Morning News

[email protected]

In North Texas, the newcomers keep coming and coming and coming.

Frisco

was the nation's fastest-growing city last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data

released Tuesday.

McKinney wasn't far behind, ranking third.

The top 25 list is studded with several other North Texas cities, including

Lewisville , Fort

Worth

, Carrollton and Denton.

Frisco claimed the top spot among cities with more than 100,000 people, thanks to a 6.2

percent population increase during a 12-month period starting in July 2008. Its Collin

County neighbor, McKinney, scored a 5.5 percent jump.

Any way you slice or dice the census data, Frisco and McKinney remain chart toppers. Over the

past decade,

Frisco also had the country's biggest population growth, while McKinney

ranked No. 2.

More than 102,000 residents were in Frisco in 2009, compared with fewer than 34,000 in

2000, a take-your-breath-away 204 percent jump.

In 2009, McKinney's population was nearly 128,000, up from about 54,000 in 2000 – a 135

percent increase.

All that city growth has helped pump up Dallas-Fort Worth. The area added more residents than

any other metropolitan area in the country, both in the last year and the past decade, according to

census data released in March.

Credit the population growth to good jobs, as well as an economy and housing market that aren't

as bad as in other parts of the country.

All of last year's 10 fastest-growing cities are in Southern states, including North Carolina,

Virginia and Tennessee.

Of the 50 fastest-growing cities, 19 are in Texas.

Texas' robust population growth – it's the fastest-growing state – means it's bound to add at least

three new seats in Congress after the 2010 census, which is under way.