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Metro Houston added 91,689 residents in ’18, a 1.3 percent increase, to reach a total population of 6,997,384 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Houston had the third largest gain of any U.S. metro area. The Dallas-Fort Worth metro led the nation in population growth adding 131,767 residents, a 1.8 percent increase from the year before. Metro Phoenix came in second, adding 96,268 residents, a 2.0 percent increase from ’18.

Houston maintained its position as the fifth largest U.S. metro area.

The metro area grew from the combined effects of the net natural increase (i.e., more births than deaths) and net in-migration (i.e., more people moving in than out).[1] Last year, Houston added 229 new residents every day as a result of:

• 56,119 residents from net natural increase (99,013 births and 42,894 deaths)
• 35,397 residents from net in-migration (44,535 from around the world and a loss of 9,138 from across the U.S.)

Every Houston-area county experienced population growth in ’18. The majority of the growth occurred in suburban counties such as Liberty, Montgomery, Waller and Fort Bend. Harris County ranked third in the nation in overall growth adding 34,460 residents to total 4,698,619 or 67.1 percent of the metro population.