Census data released this week about population growth in metropolitan areas revealed some not-so-shocking facts: New York is home to more people than any other U.S. city (18.8 million), Atlanta is growing like gangbusters, and New Orleans’ population fell the most of any city between 2000 and 2006.
But one fact in particular caught our eye: St. George, Utah is the number one fastest growing metro area in the United States. Where?
It’s in Dixie
If you didn’t know Utah had a Dixie, neither did we. It’s the Southwestern part of the state and at one time home to cotton fields. In the 1850s and 60s, long-time Mormon leader Brigham Young encouraged folks to move to the area and plant cotton crops. He even imported Southerners to plant cotton. St. George is a major community in Utah’s Dixie today.
Perhaps not surprisingly, more native-born Americans, including retirees, are moving out of big cities to places like St. George, in part to find more affordable housing but still maintain an urban feel. In fact, so many are leaving that without an influx of immigrants into major metropolitan areas, several cities would have experienced population loss over the study’s period.
The big picture
The tourism board for St. George attributes much of the growth to “competitive construction rates and low crime.” But note it’s only about 120 miles outside of Las Vegas. And while a large portion of residents are over age 55, it is close enough that one could live in St. George and work in Las Vegas. Given that there are about 128 million commuters in the U.S., 34 million of whom commute outside their metro area to another, it’s not impossible.
As more people choose to live outside of the city where they work—and commute—we may soon find ourselves discussing more seriously whether to spend money on better mass-transit systems, like France’s bullet, which broke speed records this week.
