Economy Watch: The Fastest-Growing Large City in 2016
Cities in Texas made the most appearances on Wallethub's latest study, with the state capital topping the list of large U.S. cities with the fastest economic growth.
By D.C. Stribling, Contributing Editor
Among large U.S. cities—those with a population of more than 300,000 in the city itself, not the metro area—Austin enjoyed the fasted economic growth in 2016, according to a new study by WalletHub. The capital of Texas was followed in that ranking by Charlotte, Denver, Seattle and Nashville, all the usual suspects among happening cities these days.
Among mid-sized cities (population of 100,000 to 300,000) the No. 1 for economic growth last year was Frisco, Texas, a major suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth. Next in the ranking were Kent, Wash., a Seattle suburb; Lehigh Acres, Fla., near Fort Myers; Midland, Texas; and McKinney, Texas, another major suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth (on the large city list, Fort Worth was No. 12 and Dallas was No. 17).Â
Among small cities, Meridian, Idaho ranked no. 1. It was followed by Fort Myers; Bend, Ore.; Pleasanton, Calif.; and Saint George, Utah. To be on this list, a city needs to have 100,000 or fewer residents.
To determine where the fastest local economic growth occurred last year, WalletHub compared 515 cities of varying population sizes, based on 15 key measures of both growth and decline over a period of seven years. The data sets included raw population growth, unemployment rate decrease, growth in regional GDP per capita, median house prices, building-permit activity, college-educated population growth and more.
