Austin: Decentralization, Suburbanization Accellerates
Published by wcox October 20th, 2007 in Urban Policy.
The unofficial blog of The Heartland Institute
The Austin metropolitan area is experiencing an acceleration of decentralization and suburbanization, according to US Bureau of the Census data (Data).
Population Growth
Population growth has shifted strongly away from the city of Austin to areas outside the city in the metropolitan area.
Between 2000 and 2006, the city of Austin’s annual growth rate has fallen nearly two-thirds from its 1990s rate, from 3.5 percent annually to 1.2 percent.
At the same time, the “outside Austin” annual growth rate during the 2000s has risen from 4.5 percent to 5.3 percent.
During the 1990s, the city of Austin accounted for 48 percent of the metropolitan area’s population growth. Austin’s share dropped to 19 percent during the 2000s, a drop of 60 percent.
Austin accounted for more than 80 percent of population growth within Travis County during the 1990s. During the 2000s, Austin’s share of Travis County growth dropped nearly in half, to 46 percent.
Domestic Migration
More decentralization and suburbanization is also evident in the domestic migration data (domestic migration is people moving from one county to another in the United States).
Approximately 85 percent of net domestic migration has been into counties outside the central county of Travis.
Domestic migration data is not available at the city level.
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