U.S. census numbers released April 18 show the Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area added over 50,000 residents between July 1, 2017, and July 1, 2018. That total population growth of 53,086 ranks Austin third in the state in total numerical growth and seventh in the country. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area added 131,767 residents in one year, tops in the U.S. Coming in third nationally was the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metro area with over 90,000 added residents from 2017 to 2018. According to the census numbers, the Austin-Round Rock MSA grew from 2,115,230 residents on July 1, 2017, to 2,168,316 on July 1, 2018. That is an increase of 2.5 percent, ranking 13th among all 390 of the country’s metro areas. Some smaller Texas cities saw huge percentage gains between 2017 and 2018. The Midland area grew by 4.3 percent to 178,331 residents on July 1, 2018, and the Odessa MSA ranked fifth in the country, growing by 3.2 percent. Since 2010, according to the census numbers, the Austin area has grown by 26.3 percent, ranking third in the U.S. behind The Villages, Florida, and Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach in South Carolina and North Carolina. “Though no new metro areas moved into the top 10 largest areas, Phoenix, Seattle, Austin, and Orlando all experienced numeric increases in population since 2010, rivaling growth in areas with much larger populations. This trend is consistent with the overall growth we are seeing in the south and the west,” said Sandra Johnson, a demographer in the Census Bureau’s Population Division, in a media release. The figures released April 18 included a breakdown of the ways population has changed in large and small cities as well as U.S. counties. According to the statistics, Austin’s population growth in the last year was fueled by 37,212 residents moving into the area––79 percent of those residents who moved into the metro area came from elsewhere in the U.S.