Phoenix added 17,000 newcomers last year
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Phoenix added nearly 17,000 residents last year, maintaining its status as the nation's fifth-largest city.
Yes, but: New U.S. Census Bureau population estimates show that we're not growing as quickly as other western and southern cities.
Zoom in: Phoenix ranked eighth for numeric growth between 2023 and 2024 among U.S. cities, falling well behind other Sun Belt cities like Houston (43,000 new residents), San Antonio (24,000) and Fort Worth, Texas (23,000).
State of play: From 2020-2022, Phoenix was among the top five growth cities nationwide, growing neck-and-neck with its Texas counterparts.
- That changed in 2023. Although Phoenix is still adding a significant number of people each year, the Texas cities are growing at a much faster clip.
- Meanwhile, people have begun moving back to major metros like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago (all of which saw population declines at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic), pushing Phoenix further down in the annual numeric growth rankings.
The intrigue: One major change occurred between 2020 and 2023 that likely made Phoenix less appealing to newcomers — our housing got a lot less affordable.
- Phoenix didn't have enough housing to meet the demand of people moving here during the pandemic, which drove up home prices.
- The affordability issue only exacerbated when mortgage rates surged starting in 2022.
1 silver lining: According to the new Census Bureau data, Maricopa County added more housing units than any other U.S. county last year.
- The 38,000 new units are more than double the population growth.