The D-FW metro area added more than 120,000 people from July 2024 to July 2025, according to a new Census estimate, a numeric increase that was second only to...
But the growth didn’t come from the region’s largest county: Dallas County, which still ranked as the country’s eighth most populous, actually lost population over the time period. Collin County, meanwhile, saw significant growth, adding around 43,000 people, second nationally only to Harris County, which includes the bulk of greater Houston.
More rural — and affordable — Kaufman County also saw a major jump, adding more than 11,000 people for a growth rate of nearly 6%, the country’s third highest. The new figures, published by the Census on Thursday, hint at potentially major implications for the future of D-FW. For years, the region has ranked among the country’s fastest-growing metro areas, with some estimates projecting North Texas — which has a current population estimated around 8.5 million, fourth among U.S. metro areas —— simultaneously brings numerous challenges, including higher rents and stretched infrastructure. It’s also been unevenly distributed, with some parts of the Metroplex experiencing major density and prosperity booms while other areas have languished. The new Census data is likely to only add to increasingly urgent questions about the future of Dallas’ urban core, in particular, at a time when some of central Dallas’ most important businesses and institutions, including AT&T and the Dallas Stars, are leaving or considering leaving the city center.earlier this year, in the wake of the bombshell news that AT&T, one of the region’s largest employers,Other major metro areas may be facing their own reappraisals. Of the country’s 387 metropolitan statistical areas, 310 saw slower growth between 2024 and 2025 compared to a year earlier, the data showed, and many of the country’s most populous areas actually saw population declines. Los Angeles County, the country’s most populous, lost around 54,000 residents. In Florida, Miami-Dade and Pinellas County, in the Tampa Bay area, both lost more than 10,000 residents. In New York City, Queens County and Kings County, which include the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn, also saw net losses.Those urban decreases largely stem from a drop in both international and domestic migration, according to Census researchers, while the country as a whole also saw a major decline in international migration. From 2023 to 2024, the U.S. gained residents from other countries at a rate of above 8 per 1,000, but from 2024 to 2025 the rate fell to below 4 per 1,000. Large counties, which typically serve as migration magnets, were particularly impacted, and so were counties along the U.S.-Mexico border, with Laredo County registering the country’s single steepest drop in population growth rate. The data is particularly resonant for Texas. While the state’s population and economy have both grown for years at a rate well above the national average, lately analysts have been pointing to a slowdown in international migration — and associated labor supply challenges — as a major headwind for the state’s economy. “Texas’ strong domestic and international in-migration helps explain why state job growth outpaces that of the nation,” researchers at the Dallas Fedin the fall. But they found that, in addition to slowing the migration inflow, beginning last year the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown had created a kind of “chilling effect” that was keeping foreign-born Texas residents home and dampening the economy. One in five Texas businesses in the bank’s survey said they expected immigration policy changes to negatively impact their hiring last year., have also been hit particularly hard by new restrictions to H-1B visas, a program intended for highly skilled immigrants that’s widely used in the tech industry and higher education.“That’s the disruption to kind of the growth model that we have, as far as I see it,” Pia Orrenius, a senior economist at the Dallas Fed, said in an interview this year, referring to Texas’ and D-FW’s immigration slowdowns. “Immigration and migration into the state is more than 50% of our growth.a 1.1% state jobs growth rate in 2026 — slower than Texas’ traditional 2% growth rate, but a marked improvement from last year, when the state saw virtually no employment growth. While D-FW’s year-over-year population increase of nearly 124,000 residents ranked second among metro areas in overall terms — ahead of greater Atlanta, Phoenix and Charlotte — the net jump still represented a downshift from the North Texas’ recent growth: Between 2020 and 2024 D-FW added around 715,000 people, according to the Census report, for a yearly average gain around 179,000.Google-funded residential power hubs help with energy security at Arlington apartmentsTrevor Bach joined The Dallas Morning News in 2025 and reports on a wide range of business and economic topics. He previously worked for The Real Deal in Los Angeles and Miami New Times, and his freelance writing has appeared in numerous publications.
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